


Lost in the Void's Embrace

by ambered



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: (im not sure if my descriptions will be graphic enough to warrant the actual graphic violence tag), (probably), (the other hermits are also there als well, Amnesia, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, Respawn Mechanics, Sensory Overload, Temporary Amnesia, Temporary Character Death, cant forget these, descriptions of violence, i will add them when they become majorly important to the plot), idk its just some good old hurt/comfort, if you are here for specific character tags... some characters are only introduced in later chapters, minecraft personas ONLY, suffocation, watch me as everyone becomes more and more out of character, xisuma-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 35
Words: 115,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21699688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambered/pseuds/ambered
Summary: Xisuma finds himself waking up without his memory in the End, with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. It's clear he should get out, but this isn't as easy as he thought, since he has no idea what he is doing.However, this is not the only thing that went weird on the server...Will the Hermits manage to get to the bottom of this with their admin in a state like that?
Comments: 990
Kudos: 980





	1. No one really knows whats going on yet, especially not X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (not beta-read, sorry for any mistakes.)
> 
> This plays pretty much during recent events, but i'm ignoring the entire demise and dragon bros plotlines. 
> 
> Please enjoy! :D

He groaned softly as he slowly, and painfully, drifted back into consciousness. Everything hurt. The man’s head was swimming, spiraling further away every time he tried to get his grip on a thought or sensation, leaving him dizzy and blinded. What was going on?  
  
He took a deep breath to earth himself, then tried to concentrate. Yes, every part of his body hurt; he had a heavy headache forming, his muscles felt sore and raw, and his left side was in a dull pain – maybe from lying on the hard ground for a while? Maybe from falling?

…Had he been falling? Finally blinking open his eyes, the man tried to remember how he got there. Or where ‘there’ even was. He was lying on a rough, hard surface, feeling ridges and bumps beneath his gloved fingers. Above him was… Nothing. Just a vast, impenetrable nothingness. Well, it wasn’t entirely nothing, as he could see strange, purple branches snaking into the air at the corners of his vision. They reached quite high up above him, actually.

He carefully tried to sit up, wincing as his muscles strained against every movement. He settled on propping himself up on his elbows for now, and looked around once more.

The ground was made from soft, pastel yellow stone. It was sloping uphill behind him, and he realized the purple branches belonged to strange, hard-shelled plants, growing everywhere around him. Their fruits were hanging far above him. Beyond the yellow ground and the purple plants, there was not much else, only the void. It stretched across the sky, met the horizon, and even continued below. The man guessed he was on some sort of island, since the floor stopped at some point in his view.

It was a strange place, really. It was very quiet, but not uncomfortably so. There was the occasional whooshing or soft plopping. The man didn’t know what the noises came from, but he felt no distress at them. He was calm, feeling a strange comfort in the cold air and the mysterious atmosphere, empty and vast, yet filled with life of its own. He couldn’t see any of its inhabitants, but he knew he wasn’t alone. The slightly static-y sky comforted him in his confusion.

_Right._

He struggled once more, managing to sit up and cross his aching legs. Patting down his body, he groaned as he felt sore skin and bruises forming on his ribs and hips, trailing down his leg on one side. His left shoulder screamed in pain every time he moved it, so he tried not to. With his other hand, he wiped over his face, noticing dried blood stains around his lips.

Still slightly dazed, he looked down himself once more. He was wearing some kind of armor, not of metal, but very sturdy. It was a soothing green, with beige-brown-ish boots and protectors on his elbows. His arms were covered as well, but he seemed to be quite muscular. The man stopped in his tracks at this thought.

 _Why would I not know about my own body?,_ he asked himself, already searching his memories for answers. However, there were none. Memories, that was. Any question he asked himself just came up blank. _What? What’s going on? Where am I? And, who am I? Have I lost my memories??_ Panicking slightly, he whisked around, making his head spin in dizziness.

He instinctively held his head, the cold feeling of his gloves hitting his soft hair being harsh and unfamiliar. He took a few deep breaths of the cool, still air. It calmed him down a bit until he was ready to open his eyes again.

 _Right. I lost my memories, I don’t know who I am or where I am._ The situation didn’t look to good, but the man found optimism spark somewhere inside of him. _But, I won’t get any answers if I stay here, right? I should go ahead and find a way out, see if I can find other people or at least a place to stay._ As much as he liked this place, it didn’t strike him as exactly livable. And he didn’t have anything on him, either.

_Wait, do I?_

He thoroughly patted down his pockets, and looking around himself to see if he could find anything. He found three things. One, his inventory and most of his pockets were completely empty. No food, no materials, no armor, no tools. For some reason, his survival-mind found all of these things extremely important, he made sure to hold on to that information for later.

Secondly, he found a small electronic device in the front pocket of his armored pants. It looked a bit like a phone, but sturdier and nearly undestroyable. He fiddled around with it for a second, but then decided to mess with it later since something else caught his attention.

Next to him on the floor, just about two blocks away, laid a dark helmet on the ground. The man stretched over, almost not recoiling from the pain in his limbs, and managed to grab the helmet.

It had a familiar feel around it as well. It was made from dark metal, mostly smooth save a few signs of wear and tear: a scratch here, a little dent there, some dirt encrusted on the backside. The man idly scraped it off as he turned the object in his hands. The front of the helmet has a part that went over the mouth with slits in it, and, more interestingly, a visor embedded into it, made of glass. It had a purple tint to it, fitting well into this environment. The glass was broken, a large crack spanning across it from top to bottom. It was a sad sight for some reason, and the man couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to the helmets owner. _Had someone lost it? Had it been washed up on this island, just like him? Was it HIS helmet?_

Unsure, he tried the helmet on. It fit over his head perfectly, and he turned it so the soft cushioning on the inside sat on his hair and jawline nicely. The weight and pressure on his neck and head felt familiar, comfortable. However, the purple tint of the visor made the world just a bit too dark, and while he could breathe fine in the helmet, he soon missed the fresh chilly air of his surroundings. So, he took it off again, twisting it in his hands again.

He could see his reflection in the visor, despite it being broken. A long, jagged scar ran down his face, just over his eye. It crossed another noticeable scar on his forehead. He traced the cross-shape the two scars formedwith his fingers. Who was he to be so beat up? Inspecting his face further – by now he was intrigued – he noticed a multitude of smaller, fainter scares, littering his forehead, chin, jaw, with one even drawing down over his lips. He had freckles as well, gathering on his nose and cheeks. His hair was falling into his brows, so he gently brushed it out of the way. Then, he rubbed his left eye with the palm of his hand, since it had a weird itch to it.

He sat there like that for a few more minutes, taking in the calm atmosphere, breathing freely and slowly feeling his head- and other -aches get more manageable.

 _Well, let’s get going then, shall we?,_ he asked himself, heavily propping himself up on his knees. It took a bit of effort and gritting his teeth as his muscles tried to keep up with his requests, but he managed to get up and support himself on one of the strange plants. They seemed quite sturdy.

The helmet in hand, he took in his surroundings from a higher point of view, trying to figure out a direction to go in. To his left the island broke off about 50 blocks away, but it seemed to continue on his right, so that was where he was aiming himself. Plus, he could see a beam of light far out, and since that was something that was neither yellow ground nor a strange plant, he decided to take it as a guide.

The hike was _very_ longwinded. Every step hurt, it seemed as if his bones itself protested against him moving. His ribs hurt with every breath he took, and he had to stop frequently to gather his strength. His head was spinning again now that he was up and on the move. He clutched the helmet in his hands, distracting himself from his aches and worries by fiddling with the buttons and sliders he had found on the side of it. The sides also had large ‘X’s engraved into them, and the man quite liked the design. It struck something he must’ve known before he lost his memories.

It took him a good while, but finally, something changed. He was startled by the noise of water splashing, and looked up to see his ankles were covered in water. Before him was a vast field covered in the flowing masses, seemingly coming out of nothing. Far out in the water mass, there was a contraption build. He couldn’t quite make out what it was, but it had dirt below and soft animal noises were waving over to him. Huh. It struck a familiar nerve once again. He was quickly becoming annoyed by how often this happened. He seemed to know something, but he couldn’t quite pin down a specific memory or something, other than a very vague and very not helpful feeling of Deja-vu.

As he looked around some more, he found beings gathered around the edge of the water. They were tall, taller than him, and very lanky. Their long arms were think and entirely black, as were their short bodies. They had clever purple glowing eyes, with which they eyed the water suspiciously or were watching them.

The man wondered if he had seen them before, as he didn’t seem to be bothered or distressed by them in the slightest. He guessed they were the natural inhabitants of this world, as they emitted the soft ‘vwoop’ing noises he had heard earlier. They didn’t seem to like water very much, though.

However, he was distracted from watching the beings further as something in his pocket buzzed, startling him slightly after the silence had lasted so long. He took out the device from earlier, and it really did seem to be a communicator, as a chat message was marked as unread. The man opened the chat to read it.

Stressmonster101: guys?

Confused on what the person was talking about, he quickly scrolled trough the last messages, all of which were apparently unread. Three messaged in bold text – all fairly gruesome -, each of them posted at the exact same time down to the second caught his attention.

Iskall85: Thank you dude!

MumboJumbo: np! :)

**GoodTimeWithScar experienced kinetic energy**

**Iskall85 was blown up by creeper**

**Xisuma fell out of the world**

MumboJumbo: Oh!

Grian: lol

Stressmonster101: are u guys ok?

Stressmonster101: guys?

Having arrived at the newest message, the man watched as new lines plopped up in the chat.

GoodTimeWithScar: I’m fine, just have a major headache

GoodTimeWithScar: respawn was weird

Stressmonster101: huh…

He wondered if he could see his own name of he wrote something in the chat. It might be only a nickname, but it would be something to start him off with. He quickly clenched the helmet under his arm and started typing a line of text. Then only he noticed he had wandered out of the water, since he bumped into something and was bounced back, rubbing his forehead and grimacing from the newly added pain. Confused, he looked up.

Which, apparently, was not the right reaction. Upon looking into the bright purple eyes of the being he had bumped into, a sharp pain shot through his head, and the being screeched shrilly, making the man scramble backwards. It then unhinged his entire jaw, and started shaking uncontrollably, filled with a cold rage the man could feel directed at him.

He let out a panicked yelp. Dodging the being’s long arms that were swinging at him, he stumbled a few blocks away, the horrible screaming making his ears ring and his thoughts blur. The next swing, he didn’t manage to dodge. The being’s arms got him right in his already bruised ribs, making him cry out in pain and knocking him backwards a good few blocks more. The impact with the floor knocked his breath out of him, and he desperately clung onto his only two possessions, the communicator and the mysterious helmet. He had gotten dangerously close to the edge of the floating island. Stars were dancing in front of his vision and he was breathing heavily, gritting his teeth and waiting for the pain to subside just a little bit.

However, he didn’t have that kind of privilege, as the black being didn’t let off of him, instead screeching again and lunging back towards him with long spindly steps. The man just managed to roll to the side to evade the next attack. After how heavy the thing had hit him, he wasn’t sure he could take another.

Something was dripping and splashing onto his hair, and as he looked to his right he could see the flowing water a few blocks over. He was reminded of earlier, and in an impulsive dash he managed to roll over, into the stream.

As expected, the being didn’t follow him into the water, making him let out a shaky sigh. It stood there, trembling furiously, unable to follow him. The man decided not to waste any time, and quickly scrambled back onto his feet, planning to escape whatever this was as soon as possible. However, he didn’t expect his weak knees to finally give up on him completely, and with his hands being full of helmets and phones, he was unable to support himself and landed face-first in the water, feeling it pull him into unwanted directions.

The direction of the endless void below, to be specific.

“Nono no no nono no…!”, he cried out, desperately trying to hold onto something as the water mercilessly washed his weakened body closer and closer to the edge. It was no good, though. His hands didn’t have enough strength in them to grip onto the slippery, water-covered floor, his muscles were screaming at him to just give up, and worst of all, a wave of nausea from being tossed around made his vision blur and spiral.

“NO!”

He let out a final yelp as he was pushed over the edge of the island, half submerged in water, half in free fall.

“Gah!”, he tried his best to breathe air instead of water, despite knowing it wouldn’t be much use anyways. He was in free fall, the seconds stretching out into eternity.

However, there was no floor. No impact. The void he was plummeting trough seemed to get thicker and thicker, hindering his breathing, his thinking, the cold no longer comforting, hurting him, killing him-

**Xisuma fell out of the world trying to escape enderman.**

The man gasped as he hit the ground, as his feet could feel something under them once more. The helmet fell out his trembling hands, clattering loudly on the floor. So did the communicator. He took in a few shaky breaths, but something was wrong. _Wrong._

The sky was too bright, the colors too saturated, the light too harsh. It was too much, too loud, too many things at once, he couldn’t think, couldn’t _breathe_ -…

Choking, he grasped at his throat. His breathing got faster and faster, not taking enough air into his pained lungs as his eyes grew wider and wider. He couldn’t breathe. Something was wrong. Already on his knees, he gasped and coughed, desperately trying to get more of this warm, stale air into him, but it was no good. His vision became blurry and blotchy, blacking out occasionally, not giving him any information on where he was whatsoever.

Still desperate for air, he closed his eyes, shutting out this bright, over-saturated world in a last attempt to concentrate on breathing and _living_. He felt his hands going cold and numb, his body overtaken by an unmerciful darkness.

Unable to get any sounds out anymore, the man finally collapsed into a heap of green armor on the damp floor, fading out slowly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if youre thinking 'oh no thats horrible! how could you do this!' then dont worry!
> 
> the second chapters much worse


	2. No one in this chapter has a particularly nice day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the kind comments!  
> They really made my day, so i'm posting this chapter a bit earlier than intended :D  
> (it's a bit on the shorter side, but it made sense to me to make a cut there.)

**Xisuma fell out of the world trying to escape enderman.**

Docm77: x? you good, man?

Doc looked up from his communicator, slightly concerned. Weird enough to have their admin die twice in a row, but it was unusual for Xisuma to not respond to chat messages at all. Doc didn’t even know X wanted to go to the end today, although it didn't surprise him either. People murmured that Xisuma had a connection to the Void dimension, and Doc agreed that the admin seemed to enjoy spending time there.

Pondering over the nature of his friend, Doc startled when his communicator buzzed again. Frowning, he pulled up the screen again, only to have his blood run cold and his heart sink at the message displayed.

**Xisuma suffocated.**

Doc scrambled to his feet, uneasiness nagging at him.

He suffocated? Suffocation was a rare type of death between the hermits. There was fall damage, inattentive Elytra flying, sure, maybe the occasional creeper. In the earlier days people drowned a few times as well, or tripped into a lava spot, but these deaths were rare nowadays. But suffocation? Doc couldn’t remember a single time any of them died of suffocation. Even if Xisuma had been mining sand or gravel (which, doc wondered, would be an odd thing to do after just dying in the void twice), that usually didn’t kill people since there was generally enough time to free yourself from the falling blocks if you happened to not pay attention.

Already digging through his enderchest for a fresh stack of rockets, Doc kept an eye on the chat.

Stressmonster101: Xisuma??

Grian: anyone else a bit freaked out now?

Stressmonster101: I’m gonna check his base to see if he respawned

**Xisuma suffocated.**

Docm77: stress?

Doc bit his lips, properly worried now. Whatever had Xisuma suffocating, it was still an issue. And with Stress’ next messages, his worries were proven correct.

Stressmonster101: hes not at his bed

GoodTimeWithScar: whats going on?

Doc hastily typed a short message, then ripped the string of a rocket and harshly shot up into the sky.

Docm77: gonna check spawn, im nearby

Wind rushing in his ears, the half-creeper set his cybernetic eye to scan for life on the island below him. It was just a few hundred blocks over to the spawn buildings, carpet coming into view quickly as Doc didn’t even wait for his rockets to run out before he started up the next one. He ignored the buzzing of new messages on his communicator for now, fearing what they would say. Instead, he focused on the low whirring of his eye as it zoomed in onto spawn, where the hermits usually wound up after dying with their bed missing.

Indeed, Doc made out a figure on the ground. Remembering to give the others an update, he took out his communicator, not even really looking at the messages that had been posted while he had been on his way to spawn.

Cubfan135: Yeah, maybe his bed was obstructed? I’ll have a look around the c shopping area

**Xisuma suffocated.**

Bdouble001: ill search the IDEA build!

**Xisuma suffocated.**

**Xisuma suffocated.**

Docm77: found him

Upon confirming the familiar green armor on the lone person, he immediately pulled into a nosedive, slamming down onto the ground roughly, but ignoring the sharp pain in his knees and ankles as he leapt over to the man lying on the ground.

It was Xisuma, but he didn’t look… good, to say the least. He wasn't wearing his helmet. Doc had barely seen him without his purple-tinted visor up, ever, but the bright overworld light made him seem sickly pale, his half-open eyes of an unnatural purple. His skin was also turning purple, Doc noticed, but he was pretty sure this was not Xisuma’s natural color. The admin was weakly pulling at his throat, movements becoming more and more pathetic the more seconds passed.

Doc snapped out of it as Xisuma made a gargled noise and stilled down, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.  
“Oh god, what the hell, what do I… how…”, Doc muttered half to himself, putting his ear to the chest of his friend, only to realize how shallow his breathing really was. Xisuma was definitely not getting enough air. “X? Can you hear me, man?”

X could, obviously, not, as he didn’t react to Docs presence in the slightest. His hands flopped weakly to the ground, cold as ice. His lips had turned a sickly blue.

“Shit, shit, what do-…. Ahh….”. Doc cursed lowly, fumbling with the collar of Xisuma’s armor to no avail. He shifted to try and take off his chestplate instead, when the tips of his elytra wings brushed something. A clattering noise was heard as the object rolled over the brick floor.

Doc turned half around. It was Xisuma’s helmet.

Of _course_.

Doc let out another indiscernible swear, apparently directed at himself. He quickly grasped after the dark metal helmet, the smooth surface almost slipping out of his sweaty palms. Swiftly, he turned the helmet around. The purple glass visor was cracked, with a small shard missing, but the part that went over the mouth seemed still intact, so Doc just hoped that would do.

He gently lifted Xisuma’s head – it lolled around concerningly limp in his green hand, which Doc hated – and carefully pulled the helmet over his hair, adjusting it slightly so it sat tight on Xisuma’s head.

Holding his breath, he pulled his ear closer to X’s chest once more. He hard air rushing through the helmet, but X’s breathing didn’t get any better. No, it turned even shorter and rougher, a quiet gargle being heard muffled trough the helmet. Docs heart stung, pounding in his chest. What was he doing wrong? Was the helmet not helping? Who could he call for help?

He propped Xisuma up in his arms, hands shaking, but being as careful as he could. X’s body was motionless in his grip, limbs flopping down as Doc gently hoisted him up. Wait, wasn’t Xisuma a bit _too_ motionless? Doc watched him with horror as he realized that X wasn’t breathing at all anymore.

“X… X!”, he gasped, searching the other’s face for any sign of life. However, the next second, Xisuma’s body dissipated, leaving nothing but a small puff of smoke and a distraught Doc sitting limply on the floor.

**Xisuma suffocated.**

_What was going on? Why was the helmet not working? H-_

Doc was interrupted mid-panic as he heard noises shuffling behind him, whirling around instantly.

It was Xisuma. Doc saw him respawn before his eyes, on his feet, staggering a few moments while the man instinctively lifted his hands to the sides of his helmet. His movements were sluggish, and Xisuma’s eyes didn’t appeared to quite see the half-creeper in front of him. After a second of swaying in place, Xisuma immediately collapsed into a heap on the ground once more.

Doc crawled over. Xisuma was hacking and coughing, his breathing labored as he clutched his throat. Had he been doing this all over and over again? Suffocating, dying, and respawning only to have the cycle start again? Doc’s eyes widened as he realized that it was going down even quicker this time, Xisuma’s body apparently not able to keep up with the constant abuse of dying.

The cogs in his head (both figuratively and literally) spun like crazy as a small detail caught his attention. X had touched his helmet, right?

Painfully trying to ignore the admin’s wheezing, Doc turned his head around to view the side of X’s helmet. Where Xisuma’s ear would be, a large circle decorated with an ‘X’ was embedded into the metal, with several buttons and controllers on it. There were tiny words engraved next to a important-looking cog. They were written in Galactic, though, so doc flipped on a quick filter in his eye that would automatically translate it into English.

Xisuma had long since fallen unconscious again.

He found that there were three main settings, one for each dimension. It was currently set on ‘Void’, though – Doc assumed this was the End Dimension – so he swiftly turned the control to point at ‘Overworld’.

Xisuma gasped, and Doc flinched back in surprise. A wave of relief washed over him as X filled his lungs with air, but morphed into concern again as the admin started coughing once more. He was breathing quickly, obviously getting more air than before but Doc figured the settings on the helmet weren’t quite right yet. He turned his attention to the sliders, which seemed to regulate the amount of Oxygen and other things in the air.

Already having come to the realization that Xisuma apparently wasn’t quite as human since he needed help breathing overworld air (but honestly, who was he to judge others on their human-ness?), he had no idea what kind of air requirements his friend needed. Doc winced as he realized he would have no choice but to play around with the settings and try it out. But he was a scientist, and a doctor (kind of), so he calmed himself down and started adjusting the settings on the helmet, keeping a sharp eye on Xisuma’s face and the heaving and sinking of his chest.

After a few minutes, Xisuma started breathing deeper breaths, and after a few more minutes he was breathing calmly and normally. Doc let out a long sigh he didn’t know he had been holding, and let himself fall back onto the carpet that covered spawn.

His hands were trembling as the adrenaline left his body. He kept both eyes, natural and mechanical, firmly on Xisuma, but he just seemed passed out now. Which, of course, wasn’t good either, but at least he wasn’t dying again and again anymore. Doc watched him for even the slightest change as he calmed down himself, mind blank and body feeling exhausted after the whole ordeal. He could only guess how horrible X must be feeling now.

A few moments of silence followed, with only Xisuma’s breathing being heard filtered through the helmets speaker and the occasional buzzing of their communicators. Doc found Xisuma’s communicator lying nearby, abandoned, and quickly stashed it into the pockets of his lab coat.

“Well, I should get him back somewhere until he wakes up…”, Doc muttered, hoisting himself up to his feet and stepping over to the unconscious Xisuma once more. He seemed almost peaceful now, his eyes closed shut behind the broken visor. The crack in the glass almost mirrored Xisuma’s scar that ran over his eye, making Doc’s stomach turn. What had happened to their admin?


	3. They manage to calm down to a certain degree.

The noise of rockets being spammed and drawing closer made Doc look up. A familiar red-clothed figure zipped towards him at high speeds, skidding to a halt a few blocks away from him on the grey and cyan carpet that covered the path between the buildings at spawn. He then swiftly jogged over, Elytra barely folded on his back.

“What’s going on? Is he still dying??”, Grian asked, voice full of concern. He crouched down next to Xisuma, carefully watching him before gently grabbing his helmet to turn his face, looking for any signs of life.

“He should be fine now, I think he can breathe again.”, Doc answered, joining Grian at X’s side and threading his arms under the man’s body.

“Wait, he couldn’t breathe? What happened?” Grian took a step back, leaving Doc space to lift up the armored admin with only a tiny wobble. Doc carried him in his arms, bridal-style, which looked kinda comical considering Xisuma was about the same height as Doc. Both of them were pretty tall men.

“I dunno, man.” Doc adjusted his grip on X before glancing around spawn, considering where to go. “I came here and there he was, on the ground, gasping for air. He wasn’t wearing his helmet, and the settings were all off.”

“Wait, so he actually can’t breathe without the helmet? I was always wondering about that…”, Grian muttered, the last part mostly to himself as he followed Doc, who was walking between the spawn buildings.

Doc agreed in silence. Who hadn’t wondered about Xisumas helmet at this point? However, this wasn’t the time to discuss that, they needed to find a place for the admin to recover.

“You know a place where we could take him, G?”

“Well, Concorp and Impulse’s bay are closest to here, but we can also bring him to my base. There’s still a lot of space left and I could keep an eye on him.”

Doc stifled a chuckle at the thought of the chaotic force that was Grian taking care of someone, but nodded in agreement. Grian’s base was easy to travel to and fairly accessible. And he did have a lot of space between the floors of his giant tower.

The half-creeper shifted his stance so he was holding Xisuma with only his metallic arm, the admin now half slung over his shoulder. He once more checked the man was breathing properly and nothing had changed about his condition, then took out a stack of rockets with his free hand. Grian had done the same, and without further fuss they left spawn island.

Doc ran a few heavy steps down the path before jumping into the air. The added weight of Xisuma made it harder to take off, but his powerful launch and a few spammed rockets did the trick and he quickly took off from the Island. Correcting his path as carefully as he could, as to not disturb the unconscious man over his shoulder too much, he started making his way to the main Hermitcraft continent. Grian zipped up into the air besides him, light on his wings as usual. However, he suppressed his usual erratic flight pattern to keep himself steady near Doc, so he could have an extra eye on the duo.

Doc looked down as they were rushing over the ocean. He could see X’s face on his shoulder when he turned his head enough. The admin’s expression was slightly pained, his eyes closed shut tightly and a frown crinkling his brows. He didn’t move in Doc’s arms.

Once more, Doc asked himself the question of what had happened to him, trying to recall the current events. _First, he died by falling out of the void, right? But then he died again, falling as he tried to escape an enderman._ Doc let the past messages run by his mechanical eye again, to remind him what happened. _Not two minutes after, he suffocated for the first time. Then, the amount of time between deaths got shorter and shorter…_ Doc shuddered internally, now realizing just how often Xisuma had suffocated.

He let the newest chat messages roll down in front of his red eye, seeing if there was anything relevant. Grian had said he would come over, while the others mostly expressed relief at Doc finding X and concern on whether he was ok. Doc decided to answer them later, once Xisuma was safe.

“There we go!”, Grian shouted next to him, trying to call over the wooshing of the wind. Doc looked up.

The Central Island came into view, and they kept flying fairly high as they rushed past ConCorp. None of them were talking. Doc made sure to keep his grip on X’s body tight and his flight stable, and Grian didn’t let them leave his sight. They passed the medieval district and the lake in the middle, before flying over the HRN central station. The ever-stunning colorful shopping district stretched out below them, and then Grian’s gigantic base came into their field of view. It was only then that Grian rocketed past Doc, swapping his Rockets into his off-hand and taking out a pickaxe.

“I’m gonna get a bed and some stuff, fly right up to the fourth floor!”

“Got you!”, Doc confirmed. While he kept his pace, he watched as Grian sped off to his base, landing on one of the ledges and punching a large hole into the glass before disappearing into the inside and dropping down the middle of his base.

Doc took a few seconds more to arrive at the large concrete building. He angled himself carefully, pulling up so he would slow his landing. His elytra spread out further to assist his descend, and soon he softly thudded onto the ledge of the second floor from the top, his knees bending slightly under the weight of the two bulky men. After taking a few hasty steps to keep his balance, he shifted Xisuma back into a more gentle hold before stepping trough the hole Grian had just opened in the glass wall of the floor.

As much as Doc was amazed by the builder’s base everytime he flew past, the inside was… not much to look at, really. Especially on this floor, which was the only one left empty. The walls were made from glass and concrete, large pillars intersected the walls where they surrounded the base on the outside – Doc wondered if they were still full of mobs – and other than the hole in the middle of the floor and ceiling, there was not much else to look at.

Xisuma still hadn’t stirred in his arms, but seemed to be breathing regularly.

Doc idly wandered over to the hole to look up and down. Above him, he could see treetops and soft chirping was coming through. Right, Grian’s small greenhouse or garden or whatever it was. He peered down next, unwilling to set X down onto the cold floor for now. Below him was a room that seemed to be a storage system of some sorts, with one of the walls decorated. It looked unused though, as on the lowest floor he could just make out a mess of boxes spilling over the floor. He knew that the floor between that housed the mumbo-moustache-removal machine, although he couldn’t quite see it from his angle. Grians base was calm. Only the faint humming of the beacon beam going through the middle could be heard, as well as the frantic opening and closing of shulker boxes from the lowest floor. Soon enough, he heard rockets being spammed, and took a step back as Grian shot up through the hole in the floors.

“Think I got everything!”, the man in the red sweater informed him while jogging over to one of the corners.

Doc followed him with X, watching as Grian placed down a light grey-colored bed. He ever so gently placed X down onto the bed, softly tucking the blanket over his bruised body. Then, he took a step back, shaking his organic left arm as it had gone numb from carrying X’s weigth for so long. Rummaging through his various pockets, Doc pulled out Xisumas communicator, muting the device and placing it on the crafting bench Grian had just put down next to the bed as a small table.

Grian added a softly glowing lantern to the small table, then pulled out wood planks and carpets out of his inventory. “I’m gonna make it a bit more livable.”, he explained as he noticed Doc’s curious glance.

The taller man nodded absent-mindedly, rubbing his shoulder, eyes still trained on Xisumas sleeping figure. His mind was still racing. Xisuma should’ve waken up by now, right? Was he still hurt? Doc went over to him and carefully started removing his armor, so he could check the admin for injuries and make him more comfortable. After a bit of fiddling, he managed to slide off X’s chestplate, revealing the plain black shirt below it. It had long sleeves and went all the way up his neck, so Doc gently rolled it up to see if X had any external wounds. Respawning usually got rid of all injuries, but Doc wanted to make sure. He discovered that Xisumas left side was lightly bruised, especially around the ribs, but he didn’t find anything worse than that. Unless you could count the many scars that littered the admin’s body, but Doc decided that was none of his business for now. Satisfied, he pulled the shirt over the man once more and covered him back up with the blanket.

He took a step back, seeing what Grian had accomplished so far. He had build a small oak wall behind the head of the bed, and added some fenceposts and trapdoors to the sides so Xisuma had a space that wasn’t as much in the open as before. The room was gigantic, after all, so the half-walls around the bed really made it feel more cozy. He had placed down a chest for X on the other side of the bed, filling it with some food and a stray potion of healing he had found somewhere in his chestmonster below. Right now, the builder was placing down purple and grey carpet around the area. It was starting to come together already.

“You good?”, Grian asked him, momentarily stopping his decoration work. Doc must’ve looked pretty lost.

“…Yeah. I’m just worried for X, man.”, Doc admitted. He stared at the sleeping Xisuma for a second longer, before shaking his head and finally looking at Grian. “I’m gonna go over to his base and see if I can find anything helpful, maybe a replacement helmet or something.”

“I’ll keep an eye on him.”, Grian affirmed. “…And make this a bit nicer… been empty for too long anyways.”, he muttered, waving his arm around the large, empty concrete room.

“Yup, about time you put something in here.”, Doc agreed with a large grin, then took off in a flurry of fireworks before Grian could realize he was mocking him.

“…Hey!”, he could hear the blonde shouting behind him, laughing as he sped off towards X spiky prismarine base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...i have a tendency to start writing something, knock my main character out and then be forced to write from someone elses perspective.
> 
> updates will probably slow down since the weekend is now over!


	4. Even more people are there to be confused about what's happening.

Grian sighed and propped his chin into his hands, leg bouncing impatiently. He was sitting close to Xisuma’s bed on a spruce log he had placed as a chair, watching the admin sleep. Actually he would prefer to watch him wake up, but you can’t have everything, right? X had now been asleep for quite some time. They had picked him up on the late afternoon of the day before, and he had slept through the entire night and morning of the next day. It was already nearing noon now.

Doc and Grian had watched over him after the Half-Creeper had returned from Xisuma’s base, refusing to leave the admin’s side until he woke up. Grian himself had set up a bed nearby and went to sleep some point during the night, but hadn’t slept particularly well since he was so worried about X. As soon as he had woken up, he re-joined Doc at X’s side, but nothing about his condition had changed.

Doc had wound up staying awake the entire night. Grian just managed to convince him to swap with him and finally go to bed two hours earlier. The Cyborgs low snores were heard thorough the room. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem loud enough to stir X from his slumber.

Grian shifted his attention back to the admin. On his trip to Xisuma’s base, Doc didn’t find a spare helmet, but brought back a smaller breathing mask they could put on X so he was more comfortable. It had also allowed Doc to start repairing his helmet. It laid dismantled on a wooden Desk Grain had build on the side of the room, the cracked purple visor detached and some parts screwed off. Doc would probably finish it as soon as he woke up, he had said it wouldn’t be too hard to repair.

Xisuma’s face was relaxed, his eyes shut tightly. He seemed in a much calmer sleep than yesterday. Grian idly watched the scars on his face, wondering where they were from. He also noticed the freckles that spanned Xisuma’s face, and asked himself if they had always been there or if he just never noticed them through his usual visor. The freckles were dark, with some blue-ish and green-ish hues in them, making them seem quite otherworldly. They reminded Grian of the end portal and the endless space you could see peering through.

Soon enough, Grian ran out of interesting facial features to examine. He looked at his communicator, checking for new messages. After he and Doc had carried Xisuma over, Grian had taken it upon him to explain everything that had happened to the other hermits in the group chat. There had been a lot of relieved and concerned messages, and the chat had taken quite some time to calm down before everyone finally resumed with whatever they had been doing.

Some of the hermits had dropped by to see X and check up on him. False had been there first, distraught, but calmed down after seeing the admin sleeping peacefully. Keralis and Bdubs had taken a while longer since they had been travelling by foot, but finally emerged from Grians Nether Portal in the evening. They had chatted for a while after making sure Xisuma was fine (as far as the circumstances called for). Bdubs had told Grian of his giant Diorite Castle, which Grian really wanted to check out, while Keralis complained about a particularly large creeper hole at the R.U.N. building. Impulse and Tango had apparently also shown up somewhere during the night, according to Doc.

Grian sighed again, seeing as there were no new messages. He put his communicator back into his pocket, then leaned back and stretched his arms. Xisuma still wasn’t moving.

The builder looked up as he heard the faint sound of rockets, and soon after a person came into his view, flying towards his base. They gracefully swooped through the hole in the window, then struggled greatly with the landing and bashed into a stray shulker box on the floor.

“Hey Scar!”, Grian greeted him with a lopsided grin, walking over and pulling the other back to his feet.

“Hey G! Thanks.” Scar beamed at him, brushing off his clothes after his rough landing. He carefully patted down over his torso, grimacing slightly. Then, he had a look around the room. “This place looks really cozy!”

“Yeah, I tried my best to kinda decorate it, so it would be a bit more comfortable.”

“Is that Doc?” Scar was peering over to the other side of the room, snickering at the sight of the fast asleep half-creeper.

“Yup. Forced him to go to bed after he stayed up all night trying to repair X’s helmet, and refused to leave his side.” Grian waved his arm over to the desk with the disassembled helmet on it.

Scar softly shook his head at Doc’s behavior, then stepped over to Xisuma. With a bit of a sad expression, he watched the admin, turning to Grian as he stood next to him.

“You think he will be fine? I’ve never seen him like this.”

“Well, he should be, right?”, Grian said, trying to sound optimistic. “…I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do otherwise…”, he added quietly. Scar hummed in agreement.

Both of them were lost in thought for a moment, looking at Xisuma’s unconscious form. It was a strange situration. Xisuma was usually the person to go to when something went weird with the world, and usually all of the hermit’s problems could be resolved with a few command lines from his admin panel. No one ever thought of a scenario where Xisuma was the one who needed help, and now they had no clue how to proceed. But X would wake back up any minute now… right?

“Right!”, Grian then said, clapping his hands together in a way that was always preceding a forcedly optimistic change of topic. “Did you leave Jellie at your base, Scar?”

“Ah, yeah, I left her in charge of protecting Doc’s new project as he’s over here. He’s building some giant farm in Area77…” Scar explained, rubbing his palm over his eye. He tried to remember what Doc had told him about his new problems. “Something about raids being stacked, and-…”

“Scar, your eye is all red. Everything good?”, Grian asked, walking around Scar to get a better view at him. It was true, his left eye was red and watering slightly. He also had dark bags under his eyes. Maybe he hadn’t slept so well?

“Yeah, I think I caught something in it and just… y’know…” Scar lifted his hand to rub over the eye once again.

“Don’t keep rubbing at it, you’ll only make it worse! Here, lemme see.”

Scar lifted his hands in protest as Grian stepped closer to take a look. “It’s fine, really! It’ll come out eventually.”

“Well not if you keep picking at it! Show me!”

“It’s not that important, really! I’m here to visit-“

“But you can’t- Scar, lemme seeee~”

Their bickering continued, with Grian leaning into Scar as he tried to reach his face, while Scar ‘defended’ himself, laughing.

“Hn-… Guys?”, a low grumbly voice came from the other side of the room, still tainted with sleep. The two stopped dead in their tracks, arms still tangled.

“…Great, now you’ve woken Doc up.”, Grian said lightheartedly. The two of them untangled themselves and trotted up to the little corner where Grian had set up a bed for Doc.

“Oh, Scar! Hey man, whats up.”, Doc greeted his Area77-companion, sitting up in bed and stretching his arms.

Scar smiled at him, waving his hand. “Hey Doc!”

“Doc, go back to sleep.”, Grian said bluntly, shoving the other hermit back onto his bed by his shoulders. Or, at least attempting to do so. Doc resisted him, unmoved, pretending to not even notice him.

“So, Scar, how you’ve been?” The half-creeper struck up a lighthearted conversation, his voice glistening with mischief, as he was fully aware it would drive Grian up a wall to be ignored.

“Doc.”

“Oh, I’m good my dear friend. Been sporting a bit of a headache.” Scar gladly played along, a grin crossing his face innocently.

“Doc!”

“Nothing too bad, I hope?” Doc propped his chin on his hand, a toothy grin forming on his face as well. Grian was leaning against his shoulders with his full body weight, Doc not budging an inch.

Grian growled in frustration.

Scars playful façade broke down for a minute as he thought about the question. “Nah, it’s not that bad. I felt all nauseous yesterday, and had a bit of a coughing fit, but it got better after a while so i’ts probably nothing.”

Both Grian and Doc looked up to him, the playful atmosphere being dropped. Grian let go of Doc, now turning to Scar completely. “You catching a cold, Scar?”

The hermits didn’t really get sick in the traditional sense a lot, but it happened on occasion.

“Dunno, maybe? Didn’t sleep particularly well either. I feel better now, though, so I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.” Scar gave his friends a reassuring smile. “Just a bit sore from respawning.”

Grian only now noticed the way that Scar was carrying himself, bent forwards slightly with one of his hands wrapped around his torso.

“Oh yeah, you died, right? What happened?”

“Oh you know how it is, you fly around, don’t pay any attention, crash into the side of your redstone factory…” Scar shrugged, wincing slightly at the arm movement. Grian grimaced empathetically. He has had his fair share of elytra-related deaths.

Doc stared at Scar instead. “You good? Anything left?”

Scar looked away from him in a way that made it very obvious he was avoiding eye contact. “Just some bruises left, they’ll heal up soon.”

Doc looked at him some more, before Scar sighed, seemingly giving in. Grian felt like he had missed something, but then he remembered that the two of them had grown pretty close during working on Area77. Scar pulled up his shirt to reveal an array of dark black and blue blotches, snaking over his side and front. They looked pretty serious.

Doc sucked in air through his teeth sharply at the sight.

“You want a potion of healing for that?”, Grian offered, already walking over to the chest next to Xisuma’s bed where he had chucked the potion in yesterday. As he did so, he frowned. Repercussions from respawning didn’t usually last for more than an hour or two, and it definitely didn’t leave large marks like scar had right now. This was exactly the kind of thing they needed Xisuma to look over…

“I mean… I wouldn’t complain, but you don’t need to…”, Scar’s voice trailed off as Grian already shoved the potion into his hands. “…Thanks.”, he simply said, plopping off the cork and downing the potion.

All three of them watched fascinated as the bruises on Scar’s left side began to gradually lighten and shrink down. They didn’t quite disappear entirely, but they were faint now and didn’t look like anything to be concerned over anymore.

“Ah, now that’s a lot better.”, Scar murmured, stretching his arms carefully in every direction

Doc’s brows were furrowed as he scratched the stubble of beard under his chin. “That’s weird, though. Injuries usually don’t carry over respawn that much, right?”

Scar hummed in agreement, while Grian just shrugged. None of them could quite make sense of it.

“Maybe Mumbo was lagging the world with his farms again, and respawn couldn’t keep up.”, Grian suggested jokingly.

Scar snickered, the mental image of the mustached man in front of his eyes. Then, he put his hands on his hips. “Say, Doc, Grian said something about how you should be in bed?”

Doc looked caught for a second, then shrugged with a grin. “I am in bed?”

The three of them giggled, with Scar softly punching Doc’s arm. Grian was about to say something, when all three of them heard a soft groan from the other side of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *adds another character instead of making x wake up*  
> *adds another character instead of making x wake up*  
> *adds another character instead of m


	5. Memory loss is embarrassing to admit, apparently.

He was floating, drifting through a vast, black void. It was dark. His mind was blank, his thoughts swimming by as he was unable to get a grip on anything. He was just… there. Muffled voices could be heard, although the man couldn’t make out anything. His eyes hurt, despite the darkness around him. Everything was spinning, and staying very still at the same time. It was a weird feeling he couldn’t quite put his fingers on.

Then, he felt something change. He felt more like he had a weight, more grounded. Gravity was pulling at him, and he realized he was lying down, not floating aimlessly. Bright light was filtering even through his closed eyelids, stinging in his brain. He winced annoyedly, NOT wanting to deal with this right now. Couldn’t he just go back to sleep? He clumsily tried to lift his arm to pull it over his eyes, but his muscles failed him and he got stuck on something, struggling for a moment before he gave up momentarily. He found his arms entangled in something soft. Blanket? 

_What had happened?_ He remembered the weird place he had been in, with the infinite void and the strange beings. The one that had tried to kill him, and cause him to fall off the edge of the islands. He shuddered at the thought of how unforgiving and numbing the void had been down there, the memory of his death lingering. But what had happened after that? Did he respawn here…? No, there was something else.

Despite having no memories of his own history, the man partly remembered how the world worked. He couldn’t tell his own name, but he knew people would respawn upon death. He didn’t know where he had woken up the first time, but he knew different dimensions existed and you could travel there. The Nether came up in his mind, a red, barren hellscape. _I much prefer the other place. It was dark and quite there…,_ he pondered. How had he managed to deal with all this before he lost his memories?

It was weird how he could remember some things, like the nether, but other things like the name of that different dimension just were lost to him. _Maybe I’ve only partially lost my memories._ That threw up the question where his other memories were. However, lying around here wouldn’t really get him anywhere. And there was still the question of how he ended up in this bed.

Deciding to finally open his eyes, the man blinked carefully - and immediately regretted it. Harsh, unfiltered light bit into his eyes, the clear white ceiling all the way up not helping. Sunlight was shining through from somewhere right of him, but he had trouble focusing his sight on anything. He decided to look down instead. It was a bit less blinding, as he could see a grey blanket he was tucked into. He could make out wooden walls above and to the right of him, and noticed he wasn’t wearing his armor anymore, instead being in a plain black shirt.

His arms were properly stuck under the warm blanket. He struggled again to free them, pathetically managing to free his left elbow before giving up in exhaustion. Muscles aching painfully, he let out a soft groan as he tried to relax again. He still felt dizzy and weak. 

Just what was going on? He couldn’t exactly draw from experience since all of his life experience had been lost to the void, but he was pretty certain that respawning didn’t leave you this weakened and off-thrown. And didn’t delete your entire memory.

The man tried his hardest to remember anything else. After he had respawned after falling off the Island, where had he ended up? The image of a stonebrick floor, covered in carpet came up. He remembered the ocean, and a few buildings sticking out of it. But he couldn’t for the life of him connect a name to the place. When respawning, you usually wound up in a bed, unless…

Suddenly, he sharply remembered what had happened afterwards. _Right_. The air of the overworld had been too thick and too heavy for him to breathe. With each breath, he had only filled his lungs with useless baggage, barely getting any Oxygen. He grimaced at the memory, suddenly aware of how painful and coarse his throat felt. Instinctively he tried to raise his hand to his neck, now just about managing to convince his muscles to cooperate. Trembling, his hand touched his sore throat.

His memories after not being able to breathe were very blurry. He faintly remembered passing out, but the memory played repeatedly in his head, almost as this had happened more than once… Wait, how can I breathe now? I’m still in the overworld, right?

His hand wandered up to his face, where he felt a mask over his nose and mouth. Tubes were sticking out to the side, and he took a wild guess and thought that this may be the reason why he was able to breath here. Now more relaxed, he let his hand drop down to his side again. His arm muscles thanked him for it.

He realized the voices he had heard were now silent. 

He left out a small sigh and opted for just closing his eyes again instead of covering them, since they were still straining with the overly saturated colors of the overworld. Even with closed eyes it was pretty bright. As he tried to get his spinning head to calm down, he could hear the voices again. They were loud, almost ringing in his ears, and seemed to come closer. He couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, as the words all slurred together, but there were three different voices. The man opened his eyes again and shifted, trying to focus on the conversation.

“...my gosh you’re right, Scar! He IS awake!”

“Really?”

“Yeah, his eyes are open!”

“‘Suma, are you ok man?”

“Hey X!”

“How are you feeling?”

Three heads popped up in his field of view and the man squinted to get them into focus. They all stared down at him lying there, with various degrees of relief and worry crowding their faces. 

The first person was a young man with sandy-blonde hair, hanging over his eyes in a fringe. He was wearing diamond gear over a red, comfy looking sweater, along with iridescent wings strapped to his back, just about visible. An excited grin was on his face as he leaned over the bed.

The other people actually had the same type of wings and armor, now that he looked at it. One of them was a man with short brown hair and a leather hat. He was wearing an off-white dress shirt and a brown coat over it and looked quite adventurous. His green eyes were soft and kind, and a relieved smile lifted one corner of his mouth. A scar ran across his face as well.

The last person was… green, and a cyborg. He was pretty tall, towering over the bed, and the left side of his face was replaced with metal parts, as was his right arm. Red lights were glowing on it, and his cybernetic eye has the same color. He was dressed in some sort of torn white labcoat. 

All three of them crowded him, talking over each other excitedly - and _loudly_. He winced as the noice rang in his ears. The man slinked back a bit to get some space, anxious by the sudden attention he was getting as 5-6 eyes were staring upon him. (He wasn’t quite sure if the mechanical one still counted.) They seemed to notice, as the one in the sweater shushed back the other two and said “Wait, let’s give him some space, alright?”

They all took a step back and quieted down. The man with the hat and the kind eyes sat down on the bed near his knees, while the other two simply hovered around near the bed. 

All of them were looking at him expectantly, and he gulped nervously.

“X, how are you feeling?”, the man with the hat asked him softly.

He instinctively turned his head as the man asked, like he was used to being addressed like this. X? Was that him?

“I…uh…”, he muttered, but was interrupted by a coughing fit. His voice was rough, and his throat hurt as soon as he talked. Still coughing, he propped himself up on his elbows to be in a more comfortable position.

“Whoa there.”, the green cyborg said calmly, reaching out and slowly rubbing his back. It helped a bit and he calmed down. Then, he helped him sit up and lean against the headboard, finally assuming a more comfortable position.

He looked at the three around him, drawing a grimace behind his breathing mask. He was… totally drawing a blank on who these people were. Granted, he assumed they were his friends, given how they talked and acted around him, but he had no idea, really.

He was a bit embarrassed about it as well, seeing as these people apparently still waited on some answer.

_How am I supposed to tell them I don’t even know who I am?_

“…Thanks.”, he started in response to the other man helping him up. He cleared his throat (which actually made it hurt more), and looked up at them again.

“I…” He trailed off once more. _Where do I even begin?_

The others clearly picked up on how lost he was, because they shared a Look™ between themselves, before the green one sympathetically rubbed his shoulder once more.

“Doc found you at spawn, unconscious I think.”, The man in the red sweater started, looking over to the green on in search for confirmation.

Which he got as the cyborg nodded. “Yeah man, you were just lying on the floor, with your helmet off. You suffocated… uh, a few times.” His mismatched eyes shifted away from him uncomfortably as the man in the labcoat scratched the back of his head. “I put the helmet back on you, but the settings were all off so it took me a while to get you to breathe again…”

This exposition stirred some of his memories and he crossed his arms in front of him, trying to get a grip on them. Yeah, he definitely remembered collapsing, unable to breathe. Dying a few times in consequence sounded about right to him, even though his recalling wasn’t very clear. _It would at least explain why my throat hurts so badly_ , he thought as he let out another stifled cough. And why the memory of dying had been stuck in his head like that.

“What… what happened then…?”, he asked in a very quiet voice. Mostly to avoid the awkwardness of telling them he didn’t remember anything.

“Well, Grian joined me and we carried you over to his base. Which is here.”, the tall man explained while waving his mechanical arm around the large, white concrete room.

“Yeah, and then Doc went over to your base to fetch some stuff!”, red sweater fell in.

“Couldn’t find a spare helmet though, so you’ll have to do with the breathing mask while I repair your helmet.” The man – Doc? Doctor? – pointed to a desk a few blocks over, where he could see the remnants of the helmet he had carried earlier in the void place.

 _So it really was my helmet, apparently._ He felt strangely relieved at the thought.

“The visor was cracked, and I need to make sure to reset the settings before you can configure it again. Don’t know how they got so off in the first place, they were still on the end setting after you respawned from there…”, Doctor muttered more to himself, but the man felt his neck prickle as he mentioned the settings on his helmet. The mental image of him fiddling with the controls absent-mindedly while wandering through the void, lost, struck his mind. Whoops.

“We also brought along some of your stuff, so you can get right back to your base when you’re feeling better. There was a shulker with some of your spare stuff, it’s right over here.”, the blonde man explained, opening and closing a chest right next to the bed twice. “I think your original stuff is lost though, unfortunately.”

“Isuma, what is going on with you? You’ve been awfully quiet the whole time, haven’t you?”, the third man chimed in, hitting the nail right on the head. Equal parts kindness and worry mixed in his voice. All three of them looked at him again.

“Yeah that’s right, Iks-eye-zoom-ah-void!”, Red sweater said jokingly, drawing out the syllables he had trouble even making out.

X – they all seemed to refer to him differently, but X seemed the most common and easy to remember, so he decided to go with this for now. It felt most familiar as well. – X shifted his eyes to the side, drawing up his shoulders defensively. “I…” _Guess there’s no way around this…_

“I seem to have… have lost my memory...”, he sighed, letting his shoulders drop down again.

There was a moment of silence.

“You _what_?”, Red Sweater man asked disbelievingly, in a very british accent. There was no malice in his voice, but X crossed his arms tighter about his chest. Red sweater started laughing awkwardly. “Dude… don’t.”

“Come on man, this isn’t funny, we were all real worried about you!”, Doctor said, half grinning, half frowning at him. He looked like he was torn between laughing and berating him.

Brown Hat stayed quiet, looking at him quizzically.

 _Seems like they don’t believe me. Can’t really blame them on that, tho…_ His mouth drew into a half-hearted smile behind his mask.

The following silence was _very_ long, and increasingly awkward.

“Wait, seriously?” Red sweater dropped his amused face, leaning forward to look at X. Doctor frowned, deeply.

The man with the green eyes and the hat scanned over him, with X trying desperately to avoid eye contact. “Well, the Sisuma I know wouldn’t try to fool us with something like that in a situation like this.”, he then said to the other two.

To X’s amazement, they seemed to agree after a few seconds.

“You mean like… you really lost your memory?”, Red sweater asked hesitantly.

“Yeah.”

“The memory of like, what happened. How you died and respawned and we found you?”

“No. I mean, kind of, but I can’t even remember who I am.”

“Really??”, Doctor chimed in. “X, what-… How? Did you hit your head or something?”

“I’m… I don’t know, maybe?” X felt his headache worsen and absent-mindedly pressed his left palm over his eye, rubbing it softly. “I don’t think I did, though.”

“But you didn’t forget my beautiful face, right?”, Red sweater asked in feigned offense. “Or this lovely fellow?!”, he jumped over to Brown hat, pulling his head down in a half-hug-half-headlock.

X let the question hover in the room unanswered, which was an answer itself.

“Dude…”, Red Sweater let go of his friend, who looked at him in a pout.

“Aww, Sisuma, how could you forget me!”

X could tell he wasn’t really serious from the mischief in his fake-sulking voice. He was still a bit lost on the name situation, though.

“Let’s start with me, alright? What is it, X or Suma or Sisuma? Icks-eye?”

Doctor and Brown hat started laughing, but Red Sweater was hysterical.

“You-… you, of all people…”, he got out before another laughing fit cut him off.

“Hey, I’m serious here!” X said, but wasn’t really. He was glad they weren’t taking the whole situation too badly, all things considered. Glad they got a bit of their humor back.

They took a while to calm down, but then finally got back onto answering his question.

“Ksi-Suma.”

“Isuma.”

“ _Definitely_ Ecks-eye-zooma-vo-i-aah-ed.”

All three answered at the same time. X sighed, but couldn’t help to chuckle.

“Well, no one really knows how to pronounce your name, so I guess that’s lost until you get your memory back.”, Brown Hat threw in.

“Until I get it back…?”

“Well you don’t want to stay like this forever right? You definitely need your memory back.”, Brown Hat said. That did sound good, actually.

“Yeah, but… how will I…?”

“Oh, don’t worry. Whenever something goes wrong in our world, we go to our amazing and capable…” He trailed off, his eyes widening as he stared at X. “Oh.”

“Ah, crap.” Doctor agreed.

The three of them fell strangely silent, all staring at him. The light-hearted atmosphere had suddenly shifted to uneasiness. X was looking between the three of them, confused.

“What is it?”

“Uh… YOU’RE our admin, X.“, Red sweater grimaced at this.

Well, that sounded… important. “…What’s an admin?”, X asked softly before he could stop himself.

“Oh boy, this is gonna be a thing…”, Doctor sighed, scratching his chin.

The man in the Hat answered for him. “Bascially, whenever something goes weird with the world, you – the admin – can usually fix it by running commands from the admin panel of your communicator. By the way-“, he stood up and fetched a small device from a crafting bench next to the bed, holding it out to X. It was the phone thing he had on himself after waking up for the first time. “- here’s your communicator. Also, this is how you spell your name.”

X looked down, seeing ‘Xisuma’ spelled out on the screen. He mentally slapped himself. That spelling made so much more sense, and explained how he got ‘X’ as a nickname.

“Ah, thank you… uh, what was your name again?” He had grown tired of referring to these people by their clothing choices.

“I’m Scar, or GoodTimesWithScar, if you will. This is Grian. We’re in his base right now.”, he pointed towards the man with the sweater.

“…And I’m Doc, of course.” The green man waved at him half-heartedly, apparently still trying to cope with the situation.

“Scar, Grian, and Doc. I think I can remember that.” _At least I hope I can.,_ X added mentally.

“So, what do we do now?”, Grian asked, mostly the other two.

“I should finish repairing his helmet, so he can get it back as soon as possible.”, Doc decided after a moment, padding over to the desk right to them already. X noticed his clothes were torn, and he was bare-feeted.

“You should be in bed, Doc, that is what you should do.”, Scar said indignantly, stemming his hands into his hips.

“Weeeell I can go to sleep right after I’m done with this!” Doc was already busy with the helmet parts, taking them apart swiftly and re-arranging them around on the table.

Scar looked like he was about to say something else, but then just shook his head and left it. “So, what do we do about Xisumas memories now?”, he asked instead.

Grian shrugged, seemingly unsure. “I don’t know, I never dealt with anything like this. What’s the standard procedure?”

“Hm…”, Scar wondered. “X, whats the first and the last thing you remember?”

“Well, let me see…” X carded trough his hair in thought. “First thing I remember, I woke up in that weird place – yellow stone floor, large purple plants, void above and below…”

“Sounds like the End to me.”, Grian said.

 _So that place is called the End?_ X made a mental note to himself.

“…Right. Everything hurt, and I found the helmet and the communicator. Then, I wandered around for a while, until I found a place covered in water.”

Scar looked confused at this point. “Water? In the End?”

“Must be his wool farm in the end. X has like, crazy amount of sheep hooked up there.”, Doc threw in from his spot a few blocks away, still focused on his handywork.

“Ohh, so that’s what it was. Anyways, I was attacked by these tall lanky fellas, all black, with the purple eyes…”

“Wait wait, hold on.” Grian held up his hands. “So you’re telling me, you know what a wool farm is, but you can’t remember what endermen are called?”

“Yeah it’s… it’s kinda weird, it’s like I didn’t lose all memories. I have no idea who I am, or what I have been doing the past years – just nothing. But I remember some things, like the nether, or how respawning works. But not all things, apparently? Everything’s rather patchy…”

“Hmm, weird… Continue?”, Scar asked him.

“…Right. I got attacked, and got washed off of the island, into the void.”

They nodded, and X took that as his story adding up to them.

“I remember respawning, but I, uh, I panicked because I couldn’t breathe and it kinda gets blurry from there…” He touched his throat again at the memory, still feeling sore and raspy.

“Oh, that must’ve been because you weren’t wearing your helmet at the time!” Scar exclaimed excitedly, finding the point where Doc had started his story earlier. “How does that work anyways? Were you in the End without the helmet?” He stared at X curiously.

“Uh, yeah, I wasn’t wearing it when I woke up. I could breathe in the other place- The End? Just fine. It was quite nice actually.”

“Well I don’t like it there. The air is so thin that it makes it hard to do anything, and it’s always cold there…”, Grian complained, crossing his arms in the process. “Why are you so comfortable there, X? Any interesting dark backstories?”

Unfortunately, X had no idea, so the only answer he could give was a shrug. His muscles reminded him that they were still pretty exhausted after dying repeatedly, and he winced at the feeling.

“But back to our original question, how do we get back Ix-eh-sumahs memories?”, Grian asked, apparently returning to his habit of butchering X’s name. “Maybe we just need to show him his base and all the other things he’s built on here?”

“Maybe they’ll return after he’s slept some more.”, Scar suggested, obviously having noticed just how exhausted X still was.

“…Or maybe-“ Doc started slowly, his voice mirroring the menacing grin that had crept onto his face. “-we just need to scare him real good.” He had taken out a large trident, glinting with enchantments, and was weighing it in his hand while grinning at Xisuma.

He did look pretty intimidating.

Luckily, Scar immediately stepped in his line of vision between him and Doc. “Nope, not doing that. You’ll scare the poor man do death, Doc!”

“Actually, maybe respawning again would restore his memories?”, Doc suggested in a more serious tone, putting away his weapon and turning back towards the helmet he was still trying to repair.

“Well he already respawned a bunch of times after waking up in the End, right?”, Grian asked.

“Yeah, give the man some rest!”, Scar agreed.

Silently, X agreed as well. He was really tired, after all.

Doc however just shrugged and got back to work. Apparently he could feel Scar staring daggers into his back, because he turned his head around after a few seconds to look at him. “I’m just finishing this up, alright? We got this under control. You should rest as well, Scar, you were pretty beat up earlier.”

“I’ll only leave when you’re in bed, Doc.”

“…Be done in a minute.”

X had watched their bickering curiously. These people were clearly very familiar with each other, and cared about their friends greatly. He had a bit of a struggle imagining himself as part of such an amazing group.

However, a large yawn interrupted his thought process. The bright light and loud noises were still getting to him, he just now realized. His head was pounding.

“I think I’m gonna take a quick nap as well…”, he muttered, his voice still raspy. Scar and Grian turned towards him.

“Yeah, sounds good to me. You must be pretty tired, right?” Scar asked him softly.

X nodded, letting his body slide back into the bed, covering himself with the blankets once more. The warm softness immediately made him sleepy, and his spinning headache didn’t make it any better as well.

“Just call me if you need anything, right?”, Grian asked.

X hummed in agreement, already feeling his eyelids go heavy. He noticed Grian and Scar stepping away from the bed, and the quiet noises of clinking from where Doc was working on his helmet soon lulled him into a deep sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...that introspective at the beginning got a bit out of hand.
> 
> i have a pretty bad cold right now, that's probably why X mentions his sore throat so much.


	6. X falls victim to Grians shenanigans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was a weird chapter to write, i got majorly stuck on it but it also just kept going on and on...
> 
> hope you all have nice and relaxed holidays! :D  
> knowing me, i'm either gonna write a LOT over christmas or nothing at all.

After X had woken up a few hours later, he felt much better. The overall soreness and weakness in his body had mostly dispersed, and he felt comfortable enough to sit up on the edge of his bed to go through the chest they had put next to his bed. No one had been in the room when he woke up, the finished helmet sitting on the crafting bench nightstand besides him.

He disregarded it for the moment to look through the chest. There were some flowers and cards in there, renamed to display wish-you-wells from other people. None of the names were ones he recognized really, although none felt foreign either. Someone had put in a diamond with the inscription ‘For Shishwammy, to play some RUN and feel better’ in it. There was a surprising amount of cake in the chest as well. In the middle of it, there was a shulker box, which X had taken out to sort through as well.

It seemed to be his stuff, as everything was named with ‘X’ or ‘Xisuma’ in the name. He re-equipped himself with anything he saw as useful.

He recognized a pickaxe, sword, set of armour and a bow, but got stumped on something that looked like another, flatter tool, and a set of wings like the one Grian and the others had been wearing. He also drew a blank on a stack of weird golden items as well, but the description read ‘Golden Carrot’. Thankful for the descriptions, X had stuffed anything he saw as useful into his inventory.

After being done with the chest of presents, he had decided to stretch his legs a bit and walked around the room for a while. He still didn’t feel particularly great, seeing as his headache was still present, but he was doing miles better now. After a few minutes Grian walked in, excited about seeing him up and walking around.

Together they figured out his helmet – Doc had left a piece of paper saying he had repaired it and reset the settings, but X would probably have to re-adjust them. X studied the controls of the helmet for a while. The small inscriptions on the side of the helmet made the functions fairly obviously, but after a while they figured out Grian couldn’t read the letters on it at all, saying something about it being another language. X shrugged it off and finished re-adjusting the helmet.

He then swapped his breathing mask for the helmet, carefully holding his breath after unequipping the mask. He let out a relaxed sigh as the helmet was comfortably in place on his head.

The overly saturated colors of the overworld were much more bearable now. Doc had replaced the visor, and its purple tint made X’s eyes relax and take in the Overworld much easier. Same with the noises. They were a bit filtered, not ringing in his ears harshly anymore but instead being clear and nice.

Happy with these discoveries, X gave Grian a big smile and a thumbs up.

“Alright, are you ready for a little tour? We’ll start with the best place in this world: my base!”, Grian had taken on the persona of some sort of show host apparently, because he was leading X around with grand gestures and overdramatic demeanor.

“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the base of the Grian…” He pushed X a few blocks over and turned him around. “In front of you, you can see the Hospital area of the build, only established a day ago! Our patients so far have included memory-losing admins, and half-creepers refusing to sleep!”

X snickered, letting his eyes wander around the room. It was large and mostly empty, but his bed had some wooden walls built around it and was cozily decorated. The walls were made of glass, forming giant windows all around the room. X could see the ocean on the outside.

“Over here, we can see the hole that leads to the rest of the base. If you would just followe me… ‘Suma, you forgot to equip your elytra!"

X stopped, peering down the hole that tore through the entire base. He could see the floor, far below. He then opened up his inventory to look at its contents.

“Elytra? This here?” He pulled out the set of wings he had seen earlier, presenting it to Grian.

“Yep, that’s the… wait, you don’t remember the elytra?” A grin spread across Grians face, which made X feel like he might be in trouble of some sorts.

“Uh… What would you do if I said yes to that question?”, X asked, equipping the wings. They sat snugly on his back. He also equipped the diamond boots he had found in the shulker box, since they had feather falling on them. Seemed like a good idea.

“Well!” Grian clapped his hands together mischievously. “It’s only the best way to get around, it is! It’s pretty simple as well.”

He jumped up on the legde of the hole in his base, crouching down on the corner of the blocks. His own wings spread out behind him. “You just kind of…” He began, before trailing off and dropping down the hole.

X let out a small gasp, leaping to the edge to look down. Grian was falling like a stone, but just as he was through the ceiling of the lowest floor, he caught himself and pulled up, spamming rockets to fly back up and rush past X.

“See? Real simple!” A big smile was plastered on Grians face as he landed next to X again.

“Uh, I’m not so sure about that…” X crept up on the corner, peering down, heart still racing after seeing Grian drop down so suddenly. “Do I have to?”

“Ah, don’t be so worried about it! You’ll get the hang of it quickly!” Grian slapped his shoulders, making him jerk forwards. “…Besides, I don’t think theres any other way down anywas.”

X sighed, defeated.

“You just flex your shoulder muscles like this, and the wings’ll spread out. They’re pretty sensitive, so you don’t have to do much at all when you’re in the air! It’s more about feeling than explaining it, really.”

Testingly, X flexed his muscles like Grian told him and to his surprise the Elytra really did spread out sideways behind him. The greyish wings shimmered with enchantments, and were quite pretty, really.

“Now do i…?”

He didn’t quite get to finish his question, as Grian shoved him off the edge into the drophole.

“Augh!”, X let out a startled yell as he rushed past the different tiers of Grians base, heart beating loudly in his ears. _The wings. Wings!!_

He remembered what Grian had told him, and the wings spread behind him. However, with a lurch of his stomach he was now going sideways at high speeds, seeing a wall come closer and closer.

He panicked and twisted around in midair, changing his direction way to abruptly. He didn’t even know where he was anymore, up and down and left and right getting all mixed up. He scraped by a wall, grating his helmet against concrete and turned left to avoid it, which caused him to bash right into something else, taking a bit of damage but also, luckily, ending his flight.

Dizzy, he stayed where he was, lying on the ground.

Finally he heard the sound of rockets being pulled and Grians laughter coming closer.

“That was- That was great!”, Grian snickered, offering X his hand.

X took it, letting himself be pulled up.

“That was terrifying!”, he answered immediately.

“No no, you did really well!”

It took Grian a while to manage to stop his laughing, but they eventually continued the base tour. X did a bit better at flying as they got up to the highest floor, where a beautiful little greenhouse had been built, complete with parrots and trees. Grian told him stories about each part of his base, how he built it and what had happened around the time.

There was a ‘Moustache-removal-machine’, which Grian elaborated on a lot. _They seem to be getting up to a lot of stuff on a daily basis…_ X thought to himself as he listened to Grian recall the events of the last few months. It sounded like there was always something going on in this world, and X still couldn’t quite believe he was supposed to be a part of this world and community. Much alone the… admin, they called it? They hadn’t brought it back up again since when he first woke up, but based on Docs and Grians reactions it was a pretty big deal.

X sighed into his helmet, wondering again if he would be able to get his memory back. None of Grians stories struck a nerve, although a lot seemed vaguely familiar, like maybe a dream of which the exact details had escaped him. But nothing quite managed to give him a proper memory he could call upon.

It was frustrating, to say the least.

“Hey X, come stand over here.”, Grian suddenly started in a casual tone.

Curiously, X walked over to him. They had managed to continue their tour to the lowest floor of his base, just above ocean level from the looks of it. Grian was pointing to a spot on the floor, just between two water elevators. He had an innocent smile on his face.

X wasn’t quite sure what to make of this, but decided to amuse him anyways.

“Right here?”

“Yes, that’s perfect. Now if I just…”

X gave out a startled yelp as the floor was pulled out under his feet and he started falling. Luckily, he only fell a few blocks down, his boots cancelling all fall damage, but as he opened his eyes he thought he might have died anyways.

“What in the…?”

He looked around himself, eyes widening as he realized there was just white everywhere, all around him. He turned around, but there was… nothing, really. It was like he was in an infinitely white void of some sorts.

“What is this now?!”

There was absolutely no way to orient himself in this room. Everything was just plain white, no corners, no floor or ceiling, no walls visible, absolutely no point of interest to refer to.

He walked forwards a few insecure steps, before stopping again in fear of running into something. X really couldn’t make out ANYTHING. Well, there was Grians helpless snickering from above.

“Here, let me just…” Grian fell down into the room from above, giving X a point of reference in the boundless room.

“You can just walk out of here-“, Grian laughed, taking a few steps to the right. X followed him, but stopped when Grian disappeared through the wall.

“Grian? How is this…?”, he let out a disbelieving laugh, stretching out his arms to feel the walls.

“Here, come over.” Grians arm re-appeared through the wall, and X quickly took his hand, to be pulled out of the strange room. He lightheartedly decided to not trust Grian on things like this in the future, as this had been the second time the man had tricked him into falling down somewhere.

“You’re a sneaky one, arent’cha?”, he asked Grian with a chuckle as he stumbled out of the room. His eyes glinted behind his visor in amusement.

Grian, however, flinched back.

“What is it? Did I say something wrong?”

“No, it’s just…”, Grian sighed and let go of his hand. “I know you lost your memory and all, but you still sound so much like… you. Like the Xisuma I know.”

X didn’t know Grian for long, but he could already tell he was serious by the way he didn’t butcher his name this time. “Well, I still am me, right?” He offered him a reassuring smile, not sure if it would translate through his helmet.

Grian smiled back, but it seemed a bit sad.

“Yeah… Sorry about that. It’s not like you can do anything about it right now, right?”

“Mhm.” X furrowed his brows. “Is this about this admin stuff?”

Grian looked caught for a second. Then, he dropped his shoulders. “I wish we could just try it out, right? But I don’t really know how it works, and you were always so good with it when one of us had a problem…” He rubbed his neck. “Maybe we can ask Doc about it when he’s here again.”

“By the way, how many people are there anyways? Do you all live together?” X just remembered that he didn’t remember anything about this world. He also wanted to go ahead and change the topic, as it wasn’t particularly pleasant. Grian looked surprised as well, then slapped his forehead.

“Of course! I totally forgot that you forgot that-… Well, this is Hermitcraft! It’s what we call out community, and this world. There’s about 20? 22? People around, and we call ourselves ‘hermits’.”

“Even though you’re all friends?”, X asked amusedly. He could hardly imagine someone so sociable as Grian being all alone and hermit-y.

“Yeah!” Grian gave him a big smile. “Everyone has their own base, but sometimes we work on projects together as well. There’s shops, and community events, and oh… There’s so much to see! I mean, I do hope you get your memory back, but it’s also really cool to get to show someone all of the things we built. You should see the shopping area!”

X was impressed. “Is everything here as big as your base?”

Grian puffed out his chest jokingly. “Well, no, I would say my base is pretty special since…” He trailed off as he got distracted by a sound in the distance.

Both of them looked up when they heard the tell-tale sound of rockets being fired and drawing nearer. A loud smack and a yelp were heard when someone just missed the entrance to the building and bashed into the glass next to it.

“Ah, Mumbo’s here.”, Grian said without even seeing the person in question. With a large smile, he walked over to the person, who had just about managed to make his way through the actual door.

X followed him curiously. The newly arrived man was very tall, and was wearing a black suit with a red tie he was just trying to dust off. His hair was black, as was his significantly large moustache. He seemed friendly, but his dark eyes were filled with worry.

“What’s up, Mumbo-Jumbonio?”, Grian greeted him excitedly. “I was just showing Icks-Eye-Zo-uhma around my base!”

“Grian, have you seen-, wait, you’re showing him around your base? Hasn’t Xisuma already seen your base?”, the man named Mumbo interrupted himself and looked at X curiously.

That alone was enough to make X embarrassed again. He shifted and scratched his neck just below his helmet. “Well, you see, I…”

“Funny story! X over here-“, Grian slung his arms around X’x shoulders, dragging him down a few centimetres. “- has actually lost his memory when he respawned yesterday! He just woke up earlier!”

Mumbo looked between the two of them a few times. “Wait, seriously? Wha- How-…?”

“Oh haven’t you heard yet? I wrote in chat earlier.”

“Ah, no, I haven’t read all of it. Was kinda caught up, y’know?”

X saw Mumbo brush off a significant amount of redstone dust from his sleeve, failing to be discreet in doing so.

Grian took a moment to explain the situation to his friend, who seemed more and more confused. X took the short break to lift the visor of his helmet and rub his eye again, which was still itchy. That really seemed to follow him around. He quickly closed his visor again just as Grian finished his little story. Mumbo seemed worried greatly now, even more so than before.

“So he doesn’t remember any of us?”

“No.”

“And he doesn’t remember who he is himself?” Mumbo looked at X closely, apparently trying to find something off in his demeanor.

“Not really, I don’t.” X answered in Grians place.

“I’m showing him around so maybe he can start to remember stuff!”, Grian exclaimed excitedly.

“You reckon that will help?”

“Well I sure hope it does!”

Mumbo scratched his mustache for a second, lost in thought. Then, he snapped out of it. “…Right. Grian, have you seen Iskall?”

X didn’t know who that was either, but by the look on Mumbos face he took a wild guess and thought this might be the reason for his visit here, and his original worry.

“Iskall? Not since the other day after the meeting. You need something from him?” Grian now frowned as well, dropping his playfulness for a second.

“Well, I was just wondering, and he hasn’t answered my messages or private messages even. I wanted to show him my newest build and… I don’t know. Doesn’t seem like him to not answer me for this long.”

“Well maybe he just got caught up in some sort of redstone project and fell asleep over it, right? You know Iskall. He’s just like you in that matter sometimes.” Grian tried to cheer him up with a smile, but even X could see right through it.

“…Might be.” Mumbo wasn’t convinced either.

“Well when was the last time you heard from him?”

“Yesterday, he gave me some advice on a thing… And then…” Mumbo had taken out his communicator, scrolling back through the messages.

“Oh. Then he died to a creeper. I think he wanted to do something over at R.U.N.?”

Grian peered over his shoulder, and X walked over to look at the communicator as well. The messages from the day before read:

Iskall85: Thank you dude!

MumboJumbo: np! :)

**GoodTimeWithScar experienced kinetic energy**

**Iskall85 was blown up by creeper**

**Xisuma fell out of the world**

MumboJumbo: Oh!

Grian: lol

Stressmonster101: are u guys ok?

“Oh!”, X said. “That’s me, right?” He pointed at his name on the screen, which caused both Grian and Mumbo to shoot him a bewildered look.

“Yeah, and there’s Iskall. I still don’t know how y’all managed to die at the same time, that’s SO weird!”, Grian said with a short laugh.

X just shrugged.

“Oh… he didn’t say anything else after that.”, Mumbo concluded after scrolling through the chatlog. He and Grian gave each other a look.

“That’s… He would’ve respawned over at his base, right?” Grian suggested.

Mumbo nodded furiously. “Yeah, that must be it! I’m gonna fly over and then maybe check the RUN build as well, just to be sure. Maybe his communicator just ran out of batteries!” He took out a fresh stack of rockets and waved the two of them goodbye.

“Catch ya later!”

“Yeah, write me when you’ve found him! Tell him I cried bitter tears over his absence!”, Grian yelled after him as Mumbo flew off, the latter part obviously not being said quite seriously.

“Can that really happen? Communicators running out of batteries?” Xisuma mumbled while looking at his own communicator.

“Don’t ask things like that, man. I’m sure Iskall is fine, he can take care of himself!” Grian took out his communicator as well, both looking at the newest messages.

Cubfan135: any news from x?

Grian: I think he’s up!

Grian: im gonna take him on a lil tour around my base to see if that sparks any memories

Stressmonster101: I fink that’s a great idea! <3

Renthedog: Yeah, maybe we can do a full server tour once he feels better!

Docm77: shouldn’t he be sleeping a bit more?

Docm77: he looked pretty tired earlier

Renthedog: Says the right one, dude!

Renthedog: I thought you went back to Area77 to sleep!

Docm77: im gonna sleep in a minute!

Docm77: just need to finish this thing

MumboJumbo: Hey, has anyone seen iskall around?

Cubfan135: no, can’t say that

Cubfan135: why?

MumboJumbo: We wanted to meet up today but he doesn’t answer :-(

ImpulseSV: Have you checked his base yet?

Stressmonster101: Maybe he’s over at Grians? :0

MumboJumbo: Grian?

MumboJumbo: Hold on, I’m gonna fly over to check

Grian grimaced. “Whoops. I must’ve been so caught up in our little tour that I didn’t notice the communicator going off.

Anyways!”, Grian turned around on his heels, stretching out his arms. “Speaking of tour! This is the lower floor of my base. Over here you can admire my beautiful storage system – no, I do not accept any criticism – and in the corners you will find water elevators running up to the very top. These are my farms-“ He pointed over to two large towers. X could see farmland and villagers inside. “And I absolutely don not have any secret basements or superhero caves under my base. Definitely not.”

X looked over the mess that Grian had titled a ‘beautiful storage system’. Pretty much every word of that was a bit of a reach. The ‘storage’ was neither particularly nice to look at, nor any form of system in the first place. It was a giant pile of colorful shulkerboxes and chests stretching out over a good quarter of the room, littered with some furnaces, beds and other miscellaneous stuff.

“Oh, Iks-uma! You forgot about the elytra, right? Is there anything else you can’t remember?”

X thought for a second, then opened up his inventory. “I’m not quite sure what these are, honestly.” He held up the ‘Golden Carrots’ and the flat diamond tool he had found earlier.

Grian stared at his hands dumbfounded, then started laughing. “You do- ehhhehh, you don’t remember _shovels_? Of all things?”

X looked down at the tool in his hands, a little sad. “No…”

“Oh, aw X, I…” Grian didn’t quite get the rest of his sentence out over his wheezing laugther. “That’s so random! Shovels and golden carrots? That’s food, by the way.”

X inspected the golden shiny carrots, then decided to try them later. He wasn’t entirely sure he trusted Grian on whether they were edible or not.

“I still know all the other stuff, though!” He then tried to defend himself. “The pickaxes and the armor and all of that!”

“I mean, you wouldn’t really know whether you’ve forgotten something or not, right?”

“…What?”

“Here, let’s play a game.”, Grian simply said, already rummaging through his shulker boxes.

“Is this like the other thing you shoved me in earlier?” X asked him, amused.

“No no, this is… here, do you remember this?” He held up a shimmering blue item.

“That’s a trident. Doctor had one earlier, right?”

“Doc-… Pff, yeah he did. It’s kinda his thing at this point. Alright, what about this?”

“Potatoes.”

“This?” Grian held up an unfamiliar block. It was grey and lumpy.

“…”

“Well, let’s add Gravel to the list. This?”

“You mean birch wood?”

“Yeah! Now, this?” Grian dropped the identified blocks back into a chest and held up another thing.

“…no idea…” X looked at the wooden item curiously. It seemed half broken.

“Hoe.”

“…Ex _cuse_ me?”

“This is a hoe, X. You know, the thing you use to make land farmable?”

“…huh. Right.” X very obviously had no idea what his new/old friend was talking about.

“Anyways, ever seen some of these before?”

“End rods?”

“Yep. And this?”

“That’s just dirt, Grian.” X was becoming increasingly frustrated by how much blocks and items were missing from his mind, but he knew this one.

Grian giggled, he was obviously having fun with this. They went through several more items, with Grian steadily producing more and more different blocks from the chaos of his shulker boxes. X knew most of the blocks Grian held out to him, but they added a bucket of milk, orange glazed terracotta, diorite, lanterns, fences, and smooth stone to the list of unknown things. Grian chucked one of each onto a shulker box he emptied before and looked at it cluelessly.

“That’s not particularly helpful. It looks pretty random, it’s not even like… just new things or just old things.”

“What do you think that means?” X asked him.

Grian just shrugged. “Oh yeah, what about mobs? I think I still have a few heads back here...” The builder walked over to the far part of his ‘storage’, going through yet another chest.

“Hey X, do you remember this dude?” He held up a head of a green-skinned being.

“Yep, Zombie.” X instantly recognized it. So he did with a skeleton, a cow, and a guardian, but then blanked as Grian held up yet another green being. The skin seemed more spotted this time, though, and the face looked far less human. He softly shook his head.

“You don’t remember creepers? Dude.” Grian seemed shocked, and turned the ‘creeper’ head to look at its face. “These things are dangerous. Run if you see one, especially if you hear the hissing.”

“The hiss-…? Alright, I’ll try not to forget that. Again, I mean.”

Grian laughed, then showed him another head.

“Oh! That’s the fella that attacked me when I was in the… the place, uh-“

“The End?”

“Yeah!”

“Well, this is an Enderman. Try not to look into their eyes.”

“Yeah, they didn’t seem to like that very much…” X rubbed the back of his helmet, remembering the sharp surge of headache he had felt as he had looked into the beings eyes. It still hadn’t quite worn off.

After that, X knew the rest of the mob heads Grian held up, although he did say he didn’t have all of them.

The two of them sat down on the shulkers, while Grian handed X the box of things he hadn’t remembered so far.

“Hold on to this, maybe we’ll figure something out eventually.”

“What do I do now?”

Grian scratched his chin for a moment. “You up for another base tour?”

X nodded. He still was a bit exhausted and loopy, but didn’t really feel like sleeping again right now. He’d rather do something useful and try to remember stuff…

“Well, Ren suggested earlier we could take you to your own base. I’m gonna ask him if he wants to come as well.”

After typing on his communicator for a few seconds, Grian settled down, both of them falling into a comfortable silence.


	7. Mumbo's long and suspenseful few minutes of travelling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i dont have my pc over the holidays so i was like 'oh, i still have my old laptop at home! i can write a lil bit!'
> 
> but the laptop started smoking after half an hour of runtime
> 
> so i mostly typed this on my phone,,,
> 
> but hey! it was planned to be a shorter chapter anyways. 
> 
> by the way, i also have a minecraft tumblr by the name of @ambered-glazed-sheep! feel free to come over and say hi! \o/

Mumbo pulled the string of another rocket, propelling himself higher up into the sky again. To say he was worried was a bit of an understatement. Iskall was his best friend, and him not answering for hours, almost a day, after dying was really not doing any good to Mumbos nerves. However, Mumbo also had a tendency to overthink things, and he knew that. Most likely the whole situation was nothing to worry about, right?

He let out a sigh and peered into the ocean below. After starting from Grians base he had passed Sahara and was now flying towards Iskall and Stress’ Ice biome. He had decided to check Iskalls old base first, since it was closest by. However, he didn’t really think his friend would be there at all, as far as he knew he barely used that base anymore.

But it was worth taking a look anyways.

Soon, the icy landscape came into view, and Mumbo spammed a few rockets to avoid bashing into Stress’ giant stone castle before correcting his path to Iskalls science lab. The futuristic black-and-white buildings stuck out from the ice, with the green lines through them a sharp contrast to the blue-ish environment. 

Mumbo came to a landing on the surface in front of the main entrance, skittering over the ice for a few blocks before straightening his posture and brushing down his elytra wings until they laid properly flat against his back. "Iskall?", he shouted into the dimly lit entrance of the base, half-heartedly hoping for an answer. It echoed slightly, then the area fell quiet again. Mumbo sighed and stepped into the building. 

_Iskall really isn't someone to go silent on me like that_ , Mumbo thought to himself as he strategically started searching the lab. Sure, they pulled pranks on each other and liked to rib on the other, but they were close friends, and Mumbo knew Iskall answered his messages within a few hours at most, even when wrapped up in some sort of redstone project. _So, something must be wrong._

The redstoners worrying conclusion came at the same time as the end of his equally worrying search of Iskalls ice base, which brought no results. Mumbo frowned, standing still at the end of the base system and thought. _Right, so he isn't here. Not a big deal, hes mostly over at his mooshroom island base anyways nowadays. This doesn't mean anything happened!_ He tried so, so hard to convince himself Iskall was fine. Obviously, it wasn't working so well. 

Mumbo sighed again and listened to the noises of the base for a moment, trying to pick up anything unusual. The faint hum of redstone signal was brought to his attention. It blended into the background for Mumbo most of the time since he was so used to it, but now with everything else lying in complete silence he was painfully aware of it. 

Nothing seemed out of the regular though, so Mumbo turned on his heels and headed to Iskalls Nether Portal, discreetly peering into each room again as he walked past the doors. After confirming that there was still no sign of Iskall, he merged into the loud whooshing glow of the portal. 

As he made his way trough the nether, his mind was racing. Where would Iskall be? What did he want to do the other day? A short idea flashed up in his mind, so he took out his communicator and typed while already walking down the icy corridor to Iskalls new base. 

MumboJumbo: has anyone been at RUN lately? 

Keralis1: is it restocked? 

Bdouble0100: ive been trying my best to keep keralis AWAY from there

MumboJumbo: have you seen anything unusual? 

Keralis1: no

Keralis1: except a giant creeper hole somewhere in the redstone bits

Bdouble0100: what were you doing in the redstone! 

Keralis1:.... just looking around... 

Mumbo put away his communicator, not really having gotten any new information from this. His best guess was that this was the crater from the creeper explosion that had actually killed Iskall the day before, but he couldn't be entirely sure. _Not really important anyways, right?_

He tried to distract himself, and his thoughts wabdered to Grian and Xisuma. What in the world had happened to their admin?? How did he lose his memories. Xisuma had the same polite smile behind his visor as usual, but Mumbo could clearly feel something missing. He knew the man from way back, they were good friends. They had worked on many projects together, but earlier he could tell that there was just no recognition of him in Xisumas eyes. It was a bit sad to see him like that. 

Xisuma was always someone who was collected and could handle situations well. He might not always know what everyone was up to, and he could be a bit of a derp in his own way, but he was a competent friend-leader and admin. Mbo trusted him deeply. To see him like this had been jarring to say the least. 

It also made him more scared of finding Iskall. What if he had lost his memories as well? What if he didnt recognize Mumbo at all?? 

He reached the end of the tunnel and wasted no time stepping into Iskalls portal, leaving the lingering heat of the nether behind. 

The mooshroom island seemed as peaceful as ever, yet Mumbo had a sense of uneasiness hanging over him. The stripped wood and concrete buildings had always struck him as amazing, but he payed no attention to them today. 

"Iskall!", he shouted out. His voice was insecure. He cleared his throat and tried again, yelling his friends name as walking around the entire island. He was scared of each room he checked, got nervous at each building he approached. 

This area was a lot more technical and busy than the ice base. He heard the faint sounds of villagers 'hrm' - ing, mixed with signal humming, pistons pushing in the distance and hoppers clicking. He usually liked these sounds, but today, with the person behind the redstone missing, it unnerved him. Mumbo had already checked half of the buildings as he approached the middle building, where he knew Iskall had a little bit of storage and usually a bed. It was the closest thing to a base he was currently using. With his hopes up high, Mumbo closed in on the entrance. 

However, he froze when he heard a quiet whimper from the room in front of him, feeling a wave of dread washing over him. 

"Iskall...?" 


	8. They take another base tour, most of them on purpose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new year! :D  
> here's your obligatory 'cutting back to the other characters after a cliffhanger' chapter! :D

X was wandering over the concrete and glass ring around Grians base. He had a good view or the surrounding area, which was mostly water. When looking out from the front of the base, he saw mountains in the distance, with large futuristic buildings on it. Grian had explained that this was part of ‘Sahara’, a company he had created with Mumbo and Iskall. 

To the other sides of the base there was mostly just water, but he could see a spherical build way off on the horizon. A underwater pipe connected Grians base to it. 

X finished his round around the Base and walked back to the entrance over the walkway Grian had built. He could see the coral reef underwater. It was really pretty. 

“Oi, Xisuma! Ren is here!”, Grian called over to him from inside the base. Curiously, X walked into the building again, joining Grian in front of the giant purple nether portal. A person had just come through, the purple particles just swirling around him. He was wearing a bright red shirt with suspenders over it, and sunglasses covered his eyes. Brown hair was tied into a ponytail, and a grin spread over his face as he saw X and Grian. 

“Grian! Xisuma! What is up!”

“What is up with you, dude!”, Grian answered, walking over to the man hapily to give him a fierce high five. 

“I’m good, i’m good!” The man, who X assumed to be Ren, looked at him. “Heard Xisuma isn’t doing so good though!”

X gave him a tentative wave and a small smile. Ren was very loud and excitable, but seemed like a decent fella. Internally, X prepared for another ‘oh you really lost your memory?’-conversation, but Ren apparently was informed already. 

“I read the group chat earlier, sorry to hear that dude. I’m sure we can get back your memory in no time though! You’re with the Ren-diggity-dog, after all!”

“...Right. Uh, nice to meet ya!” X answered. He wasn’t quite sure what the proper formalities in this case were. Grian and Ren chuckled though, with Grian shaking his head a bit. 

“Ever so polite, X.” the builder snickered. “Lets go, then!”

The other two agreed and lead the way outside, onto the walkway where X had been looking around earlier. 

“We need to go northwest, past Mumbos island.”, Grian explained, while all of them were taking out their rockets. 

They took off, with X following the other two. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Grian had said he wanted to take him to his own base, but X had no idea what that would entail. His base… something he built. His mind came up blank, as he’d expected. He sighed into his helmet. The fuzziness of his brain annoyed him. He was still not feeling very good, his headache had worsened a bit and he was slightly nauseous, in addition to the constant feelings of deja-vu he was experiencing. To some degree, he felt like he just woke up from a nap at the wrong time and was all disoriented and confused. 

He groaned, infuriated, and concentrated on flying instead. Leaving Grians base, the large spherical structure from earlier came into view. It stood tall, created from concrete and glass, with four walkways across it. Different landscapes had been built on it. On the foot of the sphere, several white and black buildings were scattered in the ocean. X was really impressed by the whole build. it had a futuristic feel to it, but went in a different direction than Grians tower-like base. He liked it. 

However, Grian and Ren made no signs of stopping and flew past it instead, turning to the right. 

"Here we go, X!" Grian yelled at him over the rushing of the wind, flying backwards for a bit to face him. 

"What is..?" X asked, but trailed off when another large building came into view. 

It looked amazing. Large spikes of a dark green material jutted out into the sky, in a stark contrast to the light modern builds he had seen so far. The shapes were more geometrical, forming symmetrical patterns and aligning perfectly. X  _ really _ liked it. The middle structure was decorated with lighter blocks, and in the very middle of the base a hole opened up. X gulped when Ren and Grian dove right into it. 

He pulled another rocket to gain some height, then angled his body downwards. He felt his elytra folding up, making his body more aerodynamic and plunging himself into the dark innards on the built. Not caring too much about his surroundings right now, he concentrated on spreading his wings again once he saw the ground coming closer, and drew a fairly wide circle to slow himself down. Finally, he touched down on the cool glass ground. 

Slowly walking over to the other two, who had more practice and landed perfectly in the middle of the base, X took a second to admire the view. It was very dark in the base, with only light from the sky shining through. The walls were made from the same green material he saw on the outside, coming in three different texture variants. It was broken up with some soft yellow sandstone. The build had a mysterious, calm vibe to it. Rattling and clanking of minecarts was heard from way up in the distance. The floor was stunning as well. The top layer was made of stained glass, and X could see more shapes and angles below, adding an incredible depth to it. 

"This is… this is amazing!" X exclaimed as he reached Grian and Ren. The two of them were watching him as he took in the build, a fond smile on their faces. "Who built all of this?" 

Instantly, their faces fell, and they shared a glance with each other before looking back at X. He almost recoiled from how…  _ sad _ they looked at him. 

"Xisuma…  _ you  _ built all of this!" Ren said, softly. 

"... Oh." X simply answered. He took another look around the place. The feeling of guilt crept up to him as he still didn’t recognize anything. Strangely, he felt like he owed ot to the other two. They’ve been going through so much effort to help him, yet he still didn’t remember anything. 

Their awkward silence was sudddnly interrupted by Grians communucator buzzing a few times in his pockets. He quickly took it out and opened it to read the messages. Then, his face visibly paled. Brows knitted together in a frown, he typed a short answer and stuffed away the communicator. 

"Sorry guys, i gotta go help Mumbo. Please, go on without me." He barely finished talking before taking a few steps and jumping into the air, pulling a rocket at the same time his elytra deployed. 

"But…!" Ren held out his hand, but Grians form was already disappearing through the ceiling of the base. “What was that all about?!”

X scratched the back of his head, looking after Grian as well. “Earlier when we were at Grians base, a guy with a mustache came by. Mumbo.” He just recalled the name. “He was looking for someone and he and Grian were both really worried, so i’m guessing he’s found something… Grian didn’t look too happy about that message.”

“Oh right, Mumbo was looking for Iskall! Man, i hope nothing bad happened…” Ren quickly checked his communicator, but apparently there was nothing new in the group chat. “Anyways, you wanna continue looking around your place? Maybe something comes up when you see the rest of the build!”

X nodded quietly, taking another look around. Granted, it did seem baguely familiar, but so did the rest of the world. It just wasn’t quite present in his mind. His eyes fell ober to one of the walls, which was coated in colorful shulker boxes. He walked over, with Ren following behind. Itemframes told him of the contents of the shulkers, and an enderchest was lowered into the floor. It looked both aesthetically pleasing and efficient. _ Is this the kind of person i am? _ , he wondered, quite impressed. 

Taking a look into the enderchest, he found it orderly filled with more shulker boxes, each containing different resources. Soft redstone humming could be heard behind the wall of shulker boxes in front of him, and he spotted a small entrance to the right of the contraption. “Whats behind there?”, he asked, shooting a look back to Ren.

The brown-haired man shrugged. “Dunno, i think you got some farms there, like a guardian farm and stuff?”

X carefully walked around the corner, finding an array of barrels labelled with various things. Sugarcane was one of them. More redstone clicking was heard in the area. Further down somewhere, he heard some thuds and the sound of things falling over. He curiously went closer, dropping down into the redstone parts of his base.

“Ow! What in the?”, a soft voice could be heard from somewhere. Then, more thuds. X hesitated, then looked at Ren behind him. However, Ren seemed just as confused, as he was trying to peer down to where the noises were coming from. The two of them decided silently to climb down into the redstone of this area, making their way through various observers, repeaters and an overwhelming amount of hoppers. 

“Hello? Is anyone there?”, X raised his voice just slightly, wary of anything surprising him. Ren had taken out his sword, keeping an eye out for possible dangers as well. 

The noises of someone shuffling around quieted down, then a voice could be heard again. “‘Suma, is that you? I think… i think i could use a little help over here.”

Now X recognized that voice. And sure enough, after he turned another corner, he could see the man with the brown hat, scar, who had been there when X had first woken up. He was sprawled across a heap of shulker boxes and regular chests that had been left under a redstone contraption, limbs helplessly tangled into the mess. He stared at X, and he looked incredibly lost. 

X quickly walked over and held out his hand. “Here, hold on.” Scar grabbed the hand that was offered to him, and X managed to pull him out of the pile, putting him back onto his feet. 

“Dude, what are you doing in here?”, Ren asked, looking at Scar who was just brushing off his coat. 

“I… don’t know?” Scar sounded genuinely confused. “Must’ve gotten lost on my way to… uh, you know.” He waved his arms around, pointing to the mess of chests where they had found him. His face was a single question mark. He looked horrible. HIs hair was sticking out in all directions, and X noticed just how  _ tired  _ he looked. Dark bags were visible beneath his eyes, and he kept looking around himself like he was missing something. 

“Scar, have you slept at all?”, X asked him, stemming his hands into his hips. He remembered their earlier conversation, where Scar had stated he would go home and sleep. 

The other man looked guilty for a second, then furrowed his brows. “I… think so, yeah?” 

“Well, maybe you walked over here in your sleep or something.”, Ren said jokingly. “Anyways, you should go home and sleep. You look terrible, man.”

Scar seemed to wanted to say something, but couldn’t come up with anything. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, then just nodded at Ren. He stumbled out from the chest pile, holding onto X’s shoulder as he tried to free himself. 

“You okay?” X asked, worried. 

“Yes! Yes. I’m good. Fantastic as always.” Scar grinned at him, blinking heavily to keep his eyes open. “I just need to, uh, rest maybe. You guys are right.”

Ren put his arm around Scars shoulder to make sure he was steady, as the three of them climbed out of the redstone circuits below X’s base. He still couldn’t quite believe this was  _ his  _ base, that  _ he  _ built all of this. The large, dark green geometric shapes of the main room still impressed him even at the second time. 

“X, do you think you can find back on your own? I’m gonna make sure Scar finds the way back to his base.” Ren glanced at Scar, who was staring off into the distance. He still seemed confused as to why he was here. Then, Ren looked up at X. “Where do you even stay right now? Do you wanna stay here, at your base?”

X thought about it for a second, fiddling with the diamond shovel he had in his inventory. The thought of staying alone in this unknown, dark base was… a bit intimidating to him. He much rather would go back to Grians, where there was someone around he could ask for things. And maybe with the help of the other hermits, he would be able to get his memory back? There was also still the issue of all this admin stuff he hadn’t looked into at all. X sighed, feeling his headache get stronger. 

“I guess i’ll stay with you guys for now. Maybe it’ll help.”, he finally answered. Ren nodded, satisfied. “And i think i’ll find the way back, you should rather help Scar get back.” He pointed to Scar, who was just caugth in a big yawn. “I’ll come back later, maybe i can figure something out if i have another look around this place.”

“Alright! You can always send a message if you need help, right? Oh and, you should probably get back before the night falls. Not sure if your area is spawn proof, although i guess it should be.” Ren gave him a thumbs up. “Stay safe, X!”

“You as well! Thank you!” X waved after them as Scar and Ren took off from the floor, with Ren keeping a close eye on his friend as they rocketed out of the build. 

Once more, X sighed, sitting down on the floor for a moment. He was getting quite exhausted, it had been a long day after all. He was hungry as well, he noticed. Opening his inventory, he realized the only food he had on him were the ‘Golden carrots’ Grian had explained to him earlier. Suspectly, he took a few out, inspecting them closely.  _ No better time to try than the present _ , he then thought to himself as his Stomach let out a small growl. He slowly pulled his helmet off. Dragging his hand across his face, he rubbed at his tired eyes. A firm, stinging headache had settled in just behind them. 

With a good amount of hesitation and care, he tentatively drew a small breath. The overworld air was stuffy and thick. It felt like he was breathing trough a pillow, and he could take about four or five breaths before his lungs started burning and feeling confined. This air was putting way too much Oxygen into his lungs, soon overwhelming him. Before he could start to feel dizzy, he put his helmet back on. 

X spent a while breathing the filtered air again, then removed his helmet once more to bite down on one of the golden carrots. The texture was… a bit weird, with the gold exterior coating his mouth and the crunchiness of the carrot, but they tasted quite good. A perfect mix between sweetness and freshness, with an indescribable extra taste from the gold. He ate a few of them until he felt satisfied, then put his helmet back on and stood up. 

Strengthened, he started walking around the base again. He wandered around pretty much randomly, looking at anything that piqued his interest. Not quite daring to touch much out of fear to break anything, he just took in as much as he could, wondering if he really created all of this. 

When he finally started making his way back over the ocean, the sun was already drooping low on the horizon, coloring the water red and orange. However, X couldn’t help himself but stop at the large sphere Grian had described as Mumbos base. He landed on one of the walkways, wandering along between the hundreds of chests, admiring the cool and light style of building, and listening to the clicking of hoppers and repeaters that was way louder than over at Grians or even his base. The place was filled with all sorts of circuits. 

The quarters of the circle contained a desert, a forest, a small oasis and even an icy landscape. A polar bear was sitting dangerously close to the edge of the build. As X reached the end of one of the walkways, he peered down, seeing the ocean water and the smaller buildings bundled around the sphere. The sand and grass of the island below was cut into larger blocky shapes, which really tied everything together. X smiled as he propped himself up on what might have been a window, but might as well have just been a missing block. He could stay here for hours, just staring at the view. 

But, night was appraching quickly, and zombies groaning nearby in one of the biomes mumbo had created snapped X out of his thoughts. He quickly gathered himself and dropped off the edge of the building, by now having become fairly secure in his flying. A few more rockets brought him back to Grians base, and he managed to fly up the circular hole in the middle without banging his head on anything. 

Yawning, he crawled straight into the bed Grian had provided him with, and pulled the warm and comforting blanket over himself. 


	9. Mumbo finally finds Iskall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for: Panic attack(s), sensory overload (i think?)

"ISKALL! Oh my word!!" Mumbo wasted no time rushing into the room and dropping to the side of his friend, his hands shaking.

Iskall was lying on the floor, a few blocks away from his bed. He was in a horrible state. One of his hands was wrapped around himself protectively, while the other was clutching his head, more specifically his cybernetic eye. His expression was distorted to a painful grimace, his natural eye closed shut and his brows drawn deeply into his face. His hair was sticking to his forehead, soaked in sweat. Sobs escaped his throat, but they sounded worn out and exhausted. Mumbo noticed Iskalls skin was covered in red spots and splotches, looking like badly healed burn marks. They peeked out from under his sleeves, and were covering his face as well. 

He wasn’t wearing any armor, and his green architech suit was disheveled and crumpled. Things were scattered around the room. The pillow and blanket from the bed were lying on the floor, and a chest was half open as if Iskall had tried to access it.

"Hey Iskall! Iskall?" Mumbo tried to reach the Swede, but Iskall showed no reaction, still curled into a tight ball. He bit his lip, then softly put his hand on Iskalls shoulder. Iskall was shaking, his muscles tense and cramped. Mumbo gently rubbed his arm, trying to get his attention again

"Iskall?"

There was still no reaction to his presence. Iskall let out a pathetic whimper again, making Mumbo wince. He carefully wrapped his arms around his friend, and pulled him towards himself with some effort. He noticed how cold Iskall seemed. In an awkward half-hug half-lying on his lap, Mumbo tenderly rubbed circles into Iskalls back with his hand.

"Iskall, do you hear me buddy?"

Apparently he didn't.

Mumbo closely inspected Iskalls face and frowned as he saw suspicious smudges along his chin. His breath hitched as he realized it was blood. With trembling hands, he wrapped the fingers of his free arm around Iskalls wrist, and gently tried to direct his hand away from his face. It took some effort, since Iskall wasn't cooperating in the slightest, in whatever state he was in. Mumbo slowly strained his arm more, since he didn't want to hurt him either, and finally peeled away Iskalls hand from his left eye.

He grimaced as he saw it. The cybernetic looked broken, the diamond center was missing and a few wires were sticking out of it. A few trickles of blood were seeping out from where the prosthetic met Iskalls skin. They were smudged over his face as well.

 _Iskall... what are you doing to yourself...?_ Mumbo worriedly turned over Iskalls hand to look at it. The fingertips were scratched, like he had been picking at the cybernetic in his half-conscious state. Mumbo quickly scanned the surrounding floor and saw the missing electronic pieces lying a few blocks away. He leaned over and pocketed them.

"Oh Iskall...."

Iskalls hand was still resisting his pull, but with a new sob he suddenly grabbed Mumbos arm in a steel-vice grip.

"Iskall?"

He didn't get an answer, again, but Iskall slowly turned and curled his body into Mumbos chest, letting out another drawn out whimper. Mumbo was definitely overwhelmed with the situation, and didn't know what to do. He would have called for backup, but didn't want to shove Iskall off of him to pull out his communicator. So he simply opted for pulling Iskall in a closer hug and soothingly (hopefully) rubbed his back with his free hand, trying to calm the man down. Mumbos wrist slowly started hurting where Iskall was clinging onto it with full strength, but he didn't really mind. He simply sat there, Iskall half pulled on his lap, and pet his back, occasionally making shushing noises, trying to comfort him.

"Shh... it's okay, Iskall... im here. You'll be fine..."

 _What on earth happened to him? How did he end up like that?_ Mumbo looked down at Iskalls face, but it was buried in his suit jacket somewhere. _Does he remember me?_ Fear crawled into him. What would he do if Iskall didn't recognize him anymore? More importantly, what would he do if Iskall didn't get any better?? It would probably be best to get Iskall out of his base as quick as possible. Maybe one of the other hermits knew how to help him, maybe Xisuma could... Mumbo mentally slapped as he remembered Xisuma wasn't exactly doing fine either. He wouldn't be able to perform any admin-related tasks, and if he could help Iskall otherwise right now....

Iskall was still sobbing every now and then, but his breathing seemed to have calmed down. Continuously rubbing his back, Mumbo gently twisted his arm out of Iskalls grip, which had loosened slightly. Iskall didn't resist, and his now unoccupied hand flopped down and clutched the nearest thing it found, which was the lapel of Mumbos suit jacket. His grip was much less tense, though. His other hand unwrapped from around himself and slowly tangled itself into Mumbos clothes as well, Iskall now seemingly clinging onto him for comfort. Mumbo decided to take this as a good sign and wrapped both of his arms tightly around his friend.

They sat like that for a while, seconds dragging on into minutes and minutes. Iskall quieted down, shaking less and his sobs turning into quiet sniffles. Mumbo felt tears (or maybe blood? No, tears. Tears weren't as concerning.) seeping through his jacket. He slowly kept rubbing circles into Iskalls back, feeling his muscles un-clench ever so slowly.

"Hey, Iskall? You there?", he asked softly.

Again, Iskall didn't answer. "It's okay, im here for you.", Mumbo reassured him, still not sure if his words were reaching him or not. Iskall seemed to curl into him even more, so Mumbo patiently kept soothing him, even patting his short brown hair. It was spiky, but pleasant to go through with his fingers. He was sure Iskall wouldn't mind.

After a few more minutes, he heard a low pained groan from Iskall.

"Ugh.... Mmh.... mumb....?" Iskalls voice was merely a mumble, sounding weak and unfamiliar, but a giant weight fell off Mumbos shoulders. He was conscious! He recognized him, even!

"Yeah, i'm here, buddy."

Iskall let out a shaky sigh, clutching Mumbos jacket even tighter.

* * *

Iskall was in pain. His head felt like it was on fire, sending wave after wave of searing hot pain trough his skull. It was nauseating, even. Thoughts and sensations were rushing past him, but he was unable to grasp onto them due to the sheer amount of noise and visuals his mind was providing to him. It was overbearing.

His mechanical eye had wildly malfunctioned or something, since it kept flooding him with image after image until he couldn’t handle it anymore. It hurt, seemingly overheating or trying to process imagery of some sort. Iskall didn’t know, and he didn’t care. It was just too much, too fast. He was in a haze. He remembered, half conscious, he had torn and ripped at the cybernetic, trying to get the sensory overload of it to stop, scratching at the metal until his fingers hurt, clawing at the diamond piece in the middle until it finally tore loose with a sickening snap.

It had felt like someone had jammed a diamond blade right through his eye socket, twisting it and burning the insides of his skull with scorching flames. He couldn’t see. Everything was black, his head spinning and splitting apart, his eye a throbbing source of dull pain. Had he passed out?

His head and thoughts still hadn’t quieted down. The added inputs from his cybernetic were gone, Iskall managed to note this much, but any attempt at opening his eye or moving, even, were futile since his brain was apparently too occupied to send signals to his muscles. His body was aching, hurting. His throat was sore, rough from crying.

Iskall wrapped his arms around himself, his hand clutching onto the painfull mess that used to be his trademark left eye. He didn’t register the wetness of blood, or the coarse ground below him, or how his stomach hurt and turned at every wave of pain that washed over him. His eye was closed shut, but he could still see images in front of him as if they just happened.

How much time had passed?

He saw his memories, holding a pickaxe and mining, then turning to see Grian fly away. Mumbo laughed besides him, his laugh distorted and loud. Yesterday, at Sahara.

He saw himself walking trough the nether tunnels, a sight he saw everyday, yet it seemed so much more present than usual.

He saw rockets in his hands, the ocean and Mumbos base rushing past as he flew away from the main land. Yesterday. Not a route he usually took, but he remembered it. At the same time, he didn’t.

Something was weird.

He sobbed harshly as he struggled to keep up with the multitude of inputs his mind was providing. Haphazardly noticing that he wasn’t holding his eye anymore, he clutched more tightly onto whatever was in his left hand, as a new surge of memories, paired with intense pain, caught up to him. The face of a creeper, way too close, overlaid with a black, static nothingness. He struggled to breathe. He heard the sound of the creeper hissing and the explosion, smelled the ignited gunpowder.

Smelled something else, it shifted, the smell of redstone.

The creeper explosion rang in his ears still. His body reminded him of the painful experience. Creeper explosions were never fun, but this time his body seemed to linger on to it even after respawning.

He remembered respawning, barely.

His hands were entangled into something warm and stable. Fabric.

Smell of redstone.

„Ugh… M-… Mumb…?“

He was warm and comfortably held, in a tight embrace.

A familiar voice managed to get through to him. Hands slowly rubbing his back were grounding him, bringing him back from his mind, giving him something to focus on. Iskall sobbed again, burying his face deep into the stiff, redstone-stained fabric of what was most likely Mumbos suit.

„…you doing?”, he heard Mumbos voice ask. It sounded muffled and almost drowned out by the noise in his head, but it was there.

Iskall clung onto it for dear life.

* * *

"Iskall... how are you doing?", Mumbo asked carefully, still petting Iskalls back. Iskall didn't answer him right away, until Mumbo thought that maybe he hadn't understood him or had passed out or something. But then, he heard a strained whisper.

"Mh... too much.... head is hurting...."

"Your head?"

"Eye was... pain..."

"Your eye? Does it still hurt?"

Iskall shifted uncomfortably in his arms. A pained wince confirmed Mumbos question, probably. Iskall seemed proper exhausted, his grip weakening now that he had calmed down.

"... have you been here since yesterday? Did you respawn?", Mumbo suddenly asked, realizing what this meant. Had Iskall been in pain on the floor the whole time?

"dunno...", came Iskalls winded answer. He apparently struggled to say more, so Mumbo waited for a few ticks. "uh... all the things... in my head are- are so loud, Mumbo." Iskall muttered, pressing his head further into Mumbos chest. "I'm... i can't..." He sniffeled again, and Mumbos shushed him.

"Shh, it's okay. You're gonna be fine."

The two of them sat silently for a while, with Iskall taking comfort in Mumbos presence alone. 

Mumbo wasn’t quite sure what to do. It was clear that Iskall needed help, but he didn’t know what exactly it was he needed. _The things in his head are loud? He said something about his head hurting.,_ Mumbo thought to himself. He looked at Iskall, clueless. It was clear that Iskall was suffering from some sort of panic attack or sensory overload. Maybe his prosthetic eye had something to do with it? Mumbo shuddered. He wouldn’t even attempt to fix the machinery with his friend in a state like this. _I should probably do something about his burn first, since that’s the only injury i actually know what to do against._ He looked into his inventory, hoping for a potion of healing or regen, but as usual his pockets were full of random useless stuff. 13 stone slabs and a handful of wheat seeds didn’t seem particularly helpful. 

He looked around the room, his eyes ending on the array of chests that were Iskalls storage system. _He must have something in there, right?_ But that would mean getting up and letting go of Iskall, and Mumbo didn’t really want to do that. The Swede was still clinging onto him. Instead, Mumbo carefully unwrapped one of his hands from the embrace, and reached into his pockets.

“Iskall, i’m gonna call Grian over for help, alright?”

Iskall sniffled again and managed a weak nod somewhere in Mumbos clothes. 

Mumbo quickly turned on his communicator and struggled to operate it with one hand. He first opened the group chat, but then decided to send Grian a direct message. He typed a few lines, then sat down the device on the floor next to him. 

MumboJumbo > Grian: grian, can you come over

MumboJumbo > Grian: i found him, at his mooshroom island base

MumboJumbo > Grian: i could use a little help, hes not looking good

After sending, he looked down at Iskall once again. He was drawing deep breaths, shivering slightly in his arms. He seemed in pain, still.

“Iskall, I’m need to let go of you for a second, okay? I’m gonna look if I can find any potions.”

Iskall stiffened at the mention of Mumbo letting go of him, but slowly un-clasped his hands from Mumbos suit after a few seconds. Mumbo carefully untangled himself from their embrace, and held Iskall by his shoulders since he wanted to just keel over once Mumbo wasn’t holding him anymore. He leaned him back against the wall of the room. Iskall immediately curled up into himself again, rubbing his sleeve over his eye slowly. The fabric got caught in the sharp broken edges of the cybernetics, but some of the blood got wiped away from his face. Iskall looked tired. His right eye was red from crying and had dark bags under it, and the burn marks all over his face didn’t give him anything either.

Mumbo tore himself away from the sad view and quickly walked over to the chest array in the entrance room of Iskalls base.

After a painfully long time of searching, in which he heard Iskalls quiet sobs every now and then from the next room, Mumbo finally found two healing potions stuffed away somewhere in the chests. He wasted no time grabbing them and jogging back to his friend.

“Hey, Iskall.”, he softly called the man. Mumbo wound an arm around him again to prop him up, and Iskall finally looked at him for the first time since he found him. He blinked heavily, trying to make sense of what he saw.

“…Mumbo…”, Iskall finally mumbled, leaning against Mumbos chest again.

“Iskall, can you drink this for me?” Mumbo uncorked the potion and brought it up to Iskalls lips, hesitating to pour it in case Iskall wasn’t quite up to it.

“…Whats this…?”

“Potion of healing. I figured it might help against your, uh, burns you still have.”

“Burns…?”

Mumbo didn’t really want to bring up Iskalls death the day before, since the man seemed to have enough on his mind already. Memories of him blowing up wouldn’t do him any good.

“Would you just drink it? You’ll probably feel better after.”, he simply asked of him, tilting the bottle slightly so Iskall could take a sip.

It took them a while, but Iskall managed to drink up most of the healing potion. He was exhausted. The potion seemed to relief some of his pain, though, since he wrapped an arm around Mumbo and buried his face in his suit once more. Mumbo pet him softly, watching the burn marks on his arms and neck slowly heal up. The skin smoothened out, the nasty red turned into a freshly healed skin pink, and the marks started shrinking and fading.

The wounds healed uncharacteristically slow, which is why there were still some remnants visible when Grian barged in, worried to death, practically landing on top of Mumbo and Iskall. There was a short moment of general panic and confusion. Finally, Grian had managed to separate himself from the architech pile to take a proper look at Iskall.

“…I’m gonna have to build another hospital bed, don’t I.”


	10. This is about spoons, coffee tables, mugs, the whole set...

When X woke back up, he was feeling considerately better. He had slept trough the entire night, a few weird dreams aside that were already quickly fading away from him. His headache had lifted, and his body seemed grateful for the good nights rest. 

He sat up in his bed and stretched his arms out, feeling the sleepiness slip off of him. Sunlight was cracking over the horizon. It filtered trough the glass windows, filling the large concrete room. X felt peaceful. The only sound he could pick up was soft breathing and snoring from somewhere left to him, and silent shuffling of blankets. He turned slightly to look. 

A way over, next to the desk where Doc had been working on his helmet, a new bed had been set up on the floor. It had a headboard of spruce behind it, although it wasn't as elaborately decorated as the area around X's own bed. A chest and a crafting table were placed next to the bed, but X was more interested in the people he could see in the room with him. Next to the bed, Mumbo was sitting on a log. He was slumped over, his shoulders hanging down, and clearly asleep. Most of the snoring that was heard came from him. If X had to guess, he would say it was fairly obvious that Mumbo wanted to keep watch over his friend in the bed and inevitably fell asleep during the night. 

Speaking of the person on the bed, X leaned over to get a better look. It didn't help much, though, so he got out of bed, trying to make as little noise as possible, and padded over to the other bed on his socks. Now he could examine who was in the bed. It was a man, with ragged brown hair and beard, and a mechanical eye. He looked pale and like he hadn't slept well in the past, dark bags beginning to show under his right eye. X recoiled a bit when he saw dried remnants of blood crusted onto the edges of his cybernetics. Someone had obviously tried to clean off the blood, but a little bit was still sticking around. He curiously eyed the eye. The shiny metal was slightly bent in places, seemingly with little pieces broken off. In the middle of the contraption was a hole, and X took a guess to say that there were parts missing from it. There were even a few delicate wires sticking out slightly. 

The man shifted and turned around, groaning silently. He seemed to be in a sort of half-sleep, not quite awake but not able to sleep peacefully either. X couldn't hold it against him. Broken eye cybernetics didn't strike him as a fun time exactly, pain-wise. 

He looked over behind the man to see someone else in the room. Grian had placed down another bed next to the one Doc had been sleeping in the day before, and was curled up in it, fast asleep. X smiled a little. _Him and Mumbo must've brought this guy back last night_ , he guessed to himself. _It's a wonder i didn't wake up, really._ Considering Grians base structure, he had no idea how the two of them had managed to get him up here without making huge amounts of noise. _I'm assuming this guy is the Iskall Mumbo was speaking about yesterday._ He had no way to confirm or deny it, but given how worried Grian and him had been about him he thought it was reasonable to conclude they must've found him and brought him back to Grians base. 

X looked around himself more and saw something lying on the crafting table next to the man. It glittered in a cold blue shimmer in the early morning sunlight. He stepped closer, crouching down besides the table to stare at the object. It was a small diamond piece, lined in smooth silver metal. Given the little wires hanging down from it, he quickly assumed it was the missing piece to the broken cybernetic eye. _I wonder what happened to him..._

"X, my dude...!" 

A strained whisper made X turn around. The man on the bed was awake, looking at him with tired eye. He blinked heavily. He looked very lost, but then again, he had just waken up. Or maybe he hadn't been asleep in the first place?

"Hey there, friend.", X greeted him, keeping his voice low as well as to not wake up Mumbo or Grian. He sat down on the ground entirely, so he was eye level to the man, just next to the head of his bed. 

"X, you... you gotta help me, man." The mans words slurred together, and he was speaking with a heavy accent. "I think something... went wrong when i respawned..." He grimaced, closing his eye for a moment as if to get rid of a memory, or as if a wave of pain was washing over him. X winced sympathetically. However, he wasn't sure why the man would ask _him_ to help him.

"What do you mean, buddy? How could i help you?" X extended a hand, but then hesitated. He had no idea how close he was to this man, if they were even friends at all. 

"You know, you can do your stuff...", the man weakly waved with his hand. "...Admin stuff. Just have a look to see whats... whats wrong with me..."

X's smile faltered. Ah, there it was again. _Admin stuff. Hm._

"Uh... You're Iskall, right?", he asked, watching the man shiver and pull his blanket over himself with some effort.

"What-... What kinda question is that..?", he mumbled, confirming X's question. 

"So, uh." X scratched the back of his neck where he could reach below his helmet. How could he put this in the best way? Iskall seemed distracted anyways, and was barely able to hold a proper conversation. How was he supposed to tell him he had amnesia, pretty much, and was in no shape to help him right now? X sighed deeply. 

"Well, see, i would help you if i could, but-..." X stopped as Mumbo suddenly fell over, startling himself awake. 

He shot upright on his seat, looking around with wide eyes for a few ticks, then saw Iskall and X. 

"Oh! You're awake!" 

"Same goes to you!" X gave him a little wave. 

Mumbo stretched his arms and shoulders, then looked over Iskall to see how he was doing. Iskall had gone limp again, his eye closed and was breathiing heavily. 

"I found him like this yesterday-", he started explaining, apparently feeling the need to inform X of what had happened. "- was in a really bad shape. Said something about his head being too loud and too much going on? And he also somehow broke his eye." Mumbo gestured over to the small diamond piece, and X nodded slowly. 

"It was a bit of a hassle to get him back here, he was really out of it.", Mumbo continued, pulling the blanket back over Iskall. Iskall weakly tried to fight it, but then resigned and settled down again. With a final pat, Mumbo stopped fussing around him. 

"I wish i could help him.", X said bitterly, getting up from the floor and stretching out his legs which had fallen asleep. "I feel so useless since i have the power to help, but not the knowledge how..."

"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it, mate." Mumbo gave him a sympathetic smile and put his hands onto his shoulders. "I'm sure it will all come back later. Whatever is going on with Iskall, it has nothing to do with you." He paused for a beat. "I mean, im not saying it's not your business, because you're friends as well, but then again, you've lost your memory, so maybe you aren't. I meant to say it's not your fault, not that it's none of your business, right? I'm sure Iskall wouldn't mind you minding his business, i was just trying to-"

An exasperated groan from Iskall made him stop his rambling. 

"Mumbo.... you know that i love you, right? But please, let me-... let a man sleep, Mumbo..." Iskall was pulling up the blanket as far over his head as he could, until his feet peeked out the other end of the sheet. "My head is killing me....'m feeling all nauseu-... nauseai..." He trailed off into incomprehensible murmuring. 

X snorted at the sight, then maneuvered Mumbo away from the bed, towards the hole that was still in the glass window around the room. "Let's leave him alone for a while, alright?"

Mumbo agreed. "I don't want Grian to wake up, either..."

A loud snore from the other end of the room told them that that wasn't a concern, apparently. 

"I'm glad to see Iskall is doing at least a little bit better.", Mumbo said with a soft smile as the two of them were crouching on the ledge of Grians base, rummaging trough their inventories to check on elytras and rockets. 

X side-eyed him. "Better?"

Mumbos smile fell. "He was really out of it yesterday, all zoned out and not realizing i was there. Had burn marks from respawning, as well. I gave him a potion, that seemed to have helped, but i have no idea what's wrong with his mind... Or like, why he has such a headache."

"Mh." X wasn't sure how to respond. The two of them were silent for a minute, watching the sun rise higher and higher above the horizon. X turned to look back at the room. Iskall hadn't moved from his bed, so he thought that he might finally have fallen asleep. He could see his own worry mirrored tenfold in Mumbos expression. 

"Where should we be going, then?", Mumbo asked him, shuffling some rockets from hand to hand. "You wanna stay here?"

"No... I need to get my mind off of things." _More specifically, all of this admin stuff everyone is expecting of me._ No one had said anything, but X could see their expressions, when they looked to him to solve a problem only to remember he couldn't, and then quickly looked away. He was sure no one would blame him for anything, but he felt the pressure of responsibility because somehow, he was the one who was supposed to know how to fix this. But he didn't. He was mentally beating himself up about it already, so it would probably be best to think about something else for a while. 

"Wanna look around the shopping district?", Mumbo suggested. 

"Sure, that sounds great!"

The pair of them jumped off the edge of the building, catching the air under their elytras as they pulled a rocket each to shoot off into the distance. The shopping district was just a short flight over from Grians base, and boi was it a sight to behold.

Dozens of colorful buildings littered the area, pooling around a build with a light wooden roof. X couldn't stop gawking. Every little house had so much detail put in and around it, it was incredible. Mumbo angled himself to land on a large grey build, but X took a few more minutes to fly around the area and look at everything. There were coral shops, a large hall with villagers inside, statues of what he assumed to be more of the hermits, a HUGE statue of a villager, made from the same green prismarine his base was constructed of, a large temple-like build, a giant rainbow... The list went on and on. Every time X turned around, there was more to see, more to look at, more to discover. 

Finally, he landed next to Mumbo, who was sitting on the edge of the largest building in the area. It was basically a large grey box, but it seemed like it was connected to more buildings behind it. 

The two of them sat down at the edge of the build together, legs dangling over. Mumbo took his time to point out all the small shops and buildings in the district, telling X their stories and who had built them. X eagerly listened. Apparently the rainbow was one of his own creations, intended for selling all colors of wool. He had also built a turtle-themed shop. Mumbo had created a slime shop and a 'spoiler store' respectively, which he had then re-purposed to make small trailers for the other hermits. 

"And this." Mumbo continued, turning around. "Is Sahara."

Saha was... _ginormous_. It stretched out over an area almost half as big as the entire rest of the shopping district, and had several buildings connected to it. Mumbo beckoned X to follow him, then gave him a full tour of the complex. It was created by him, Grian and Iskall, with Grian doing most of the building and the other two working on the redstone. Redstone that was, by the way, absolutely mind-boggling.

X had lost most of his memories of redstone mechanics, so not much of what Mumbo was explaining to him made sense, but it was impressive nonetheless. Mumbo showed him how to order something from the shopfront, how Sahara Now worked - although he seemed really apologetic about it not being stocked properly - and then took him to the giant warehouse in the back. It was buzzing with redstone. X's head was buzzing as well. Filled with Mumbos explanations of circuits and restockers, delivery systems and shulker box management and whatnot. Mumbo just kept talking and talking, and X listened. It was fascinating. They walked trough the meeting room of the three architechs, where the chairs were wildly disproportional to each other, hopped around the redstone bits in the main warehouse for what feeled like hours, and took a stroll down into the restock indicator Iskall had built. 

When they finally came out of the building to see a mostly-broken concrete machine, the sun was already setting over the shopping district. Mumbo and X wandered a bit higher up the mountain that Sahara was placed on, having a good view of Grian's base from here. 

X's head was spinning, but for once not from nausea and memory loss, but from the long and winded explanations Mumbo had given him. He understood only a fraction and forgot most of it already again, but nonetheless, he had had fun on their trip. The whole area was amazing. He felt kind of melancholic when he thought about all the great adventures he must've been having here along with the other hermits, and now couldn't remember. 

"Hey, Mumbo? Could i ask you a question?"

"Yeah sure mate, go ahead!"

"What kind of person am I?"

Mumbo looked at him for a second, then stared back over the shopping district. "Well, you're always trying to help others. Never someone to say a seriously bad word about anyone. I think the only time i heard you rage on something it was over Mycelium, for some reason. And I don't think it was that much of a serious thing, either. You're like... really professional in what you do, but also kind of a derp sometimes?" Mumbo smiled at that thought. "Just as much as i am a spoon, i suppose. We've had contests about this in the past, too."

"Contests?"

"Yeah, in the last world, we built large counters in our bases together, a spoon counter and a derp counter. Whoever filled up his counter first was to lose the little wager."

X stayed silent, taking in the information of them having lived together in different worlds already. _The other hermits as well, i suppose. How did i end up here?_ He furrowed his brows, his eyes stinging at the thought of not remembering his whole life story. Who he was, who he had been. What he had been trough, what had made him who he was. His relationships to the other people, his friends. All of his adventures and experiences with them, the fun they have had, the things they had built together. Sad, X drew up his legs and wrapped his arms around them, resting his chin on his knees. The red evening sun was dipping everything in a soft light, and it made X even more forlorn. 

Mumbo must've noticed, since he dangled his legs awkwardly for a moment before he continued, even without X prompting him to do so. 

"I lost though, you know? In the end, I was way spoon-ier than you were derpy. Filled my counter right up."

X smiled and briefly lifted his visor to wipe his eyes when Mumbo wasn't looking, a tear soaking into his glove. "What happened then?"

"You build your face in my base. A giant one, as well. It was looming over my entire area, just a floating ominous Xisuma face." Mumbos voice was tainted with amusement at the memory. "I was really thrown off when i first saw it, too. It was great."

X managed a little smile at the mental image of his own face hovering above Mumbo's base. "Was your base in the other world also a giant sphere?"

Mumbo grinned sheepishly. "Nah, it was in the ocean, made out of prismarine. Everyone always called it 'coffee tables'... Honestly, i can't hold it against them. It _did_ kinda look like coffee tables."

"...To go with your spoons?"

"Well, if you put it that way...", Mumbo laughed out. "Hey that reminds me, i really want you to try something." His tone of voice had shifted, now sounding almost mischievous. "Let's get back to Grian's."

Curiously, X followed him as Mumbo dropped over the edge of the Sahara building, and in fact dropped quite a while down before his elytra deployed. The pair of them smoothly made their way back to Grians large, tiered base. They arrived on the lowest floor, where Grian was currently rummaging trough some chests. He seemed a bit anxious, but his face lit up when he greeted the two of them.

"Oh! There you guys are!"

X waved him hello as Mumbo started looking trough Grians shulker boxes as well, gathering items together. "Hi! We were out in the shopping area, and then Mumbo explained your Sahara project to me.", X quickly explained. His curiosity about what Mumbo wanted him to try grew as the man started working on a furnace.

Grian, meanwhile, just snorted at his statement. "So that's why you've been gone the whole day then. Did you get any of what he explained to you?"

X tentatively shook his head when Mumbo was distracted. 

"Yeah, same. I've been looking around in the redstone so often - not touching anything, of course, and i would _never_ drop anything into these complicated systems - but i never understood how it works. It might as well be straight up magic.", Grian complained, putting his hands on his hips while both of the men were watching Mumbo fuss around. X was glad he wasn't the only one who was perplexed by Sahara's inner workings, although he did understand a little of it. Just not how it all came together.

Finally, Mumbo came back to them, holding a large mug. The grin on his face was indecipherable. "Here, Xisuma, try this."

"But Mumbo, Xisuma does...oh..." Grian trailed off, his face lighting up once more. 

X didn't miss this, or the fact that Mumbo had already raised his foot to kick Grian in the shin, but took the mug anyways. This was incredibly suspicious.

He lifted the visor of his helmet to take a tiny sip. Grian and Mumbo were watching him with an intensity to match the endermen he had seen in the end dimension. 

First of all, he burned his tongue _terribly_ , as the drink was scorching hot still. Secondly, it tasted horrible. It was pure bitterness! X sputtered and almost dropped the mug entirely, which caused some of the drink to spill onto his hands and burn him once again. 

"Told you Ecks-eh-süma doesn't like coffee!", Grian burst into laughter, with Mumbo following suit. X stared at them perplexed for a few minutes, coffee still soaking into his gloves, then chimed in with them. It felt good to laugh. 

"Sorry X! I'll make sure to make you some tea next time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think Xisuma has actually THAT strong opinions on coffee, but he does now here.
> 
> Thank all of you for your wonderful comments by the way! They really motivate me :D


	11. Breakfast.

The next morning, Xisuma was watching Grian and Mumbo closely as they made some tea for breakfast. The three of them had stayed up late last night, chatting and talking about their past experiences. Xisuma had listened to their many stories. Some had felt vaguely familiar, but, again, he could never quite put a finger on it. At the end, it was mostly Mumbo talking, since Grian had only joined the hermits in this current world apparently. 

Iskall had been asleep for most of the day yesterday, occasionally being in a half-awake state according to Grian. He had muttered something about it being dark and being surrounded by prismarine, but neither of them could make much sense of that. Holding a conversation with him had been... difficult to impossible, since he seemed to just lose track of thought mid-sentence and have something else in mind instead. After a good night's sleep, he seemed much more awake though, and managed to sit up and hold on to the cup of tea they had brought him. 

Mumbo and Grian had not stayed up to keep guard again, but couldn't be deterred from bringing their stuff over and sleeping over in the 'hospital floor' of Grians base, as it had been ungracefully titled by the hermits. Right now, the four of them were having breakfast. Grian, Mumbo and Xisuma were all huddled around Iskalls bed, sitting on whatever blocks they had in their inventories as chairs. In addition to golden carrots, which was apparently the go-to food in this world, Grian had produced some cookies from a forgotten shulker box that were titled '#jangled' and similar things. They tasted fine, though. 

"Hey, how are you feeling?", Xisuma asked Iskall, as Mumbo and Grian were currently in a winded discussion about restocking Sahara. It involved observers.

Iskall looked up from his cup of tea. "Still have a headache...", he said sullenly. He blinked at Xisuma confusedly, as if seeing his face was something weird to him. 

Xisuma frowned behind his visor. "You haven't lost your memory too, right?"

"No... wait, who has lost his memory?"

"...Me.", Xisuma sighed. "All gone. Couldn't even remember my own name."

"Aw man, that sucks-...", Iskall said, squinting at his tea. 

"Iskall, what's the last thing you remember?", Grian asked his friend, leaning over curiously. Him and Mumbo had finished their conversation and were listening in to him and Xisuma. 

"Uh..." Iskalls eye trailed up to the ceiling as he tried to gather his thoughts. "I was flying over Mumbo's... no that was earlier. I know i was in new Hermitville... and the End...? No, i think i was over at R.U.N. restocking and-... and checking in on the redstone. Then there was a...uh..." He muttered something under his breath, sounding like 'freaking eyes' or something similar.

"A creeper?", Mumbo offered, remembering Iskall's death message on that day and the fact that Keralis had complained about creeper holes over at the R.U.N building. 

"Yeah! Creeper. There was definitely a-... a creeper." Iskalls face lit up. Then he flinched and gingerly touched his still broken eye cybernetic. "Ow, darn thing..."

Xisuma blinked in sympathy. 

"So the creeper blew you up, what happened then?", Grian asked, prompting him to go on. 

Iskall grimaced, turning to his red-sweatered friend. "No idea, dude. I respawned, but everything hurt and was going all weird." He paused for a second to take a sip of tea and rub his forehead. "Felt like my head was splitting apart. My brain was full of weird, too. Memories and... stuff... started flashing in my head. You know, like when you dream something but it's way too much and too real?"

Grian nodded slowly, then shook his heads. 

"Like, memories? Did you remember something from any of the other worlds maybe?"

"...Maybe? I don't know, no. Yes." Iskall took a deep breath to calm himself down after giving about every possible answer to that question. "I remember seeing those things, but at the same time i don't? Theres a lot of... weird thoughts in my head all the time." He turned to Mumbo, his tone becoming desperate and accusing. "I can't stop thinking about DIORITE, of all things!"

This prompted Mumbo and Grian to burst into howling laughter. Iskall pointedly set down his mug on the night stand and then crossed his arms in front of his chest, overdramatically sulking. Xisuma joined the other two with a confused grin. He had no idea what this was about, but their laughter was absolutely contagious. Not even Iskall was resilient to it, and started snickering, but then quickly stopped as another surged of pain caused him to yelp and clutch his eye again.

"Stupid thing...", he murmured, still amused though. 

With a silly but also concerned grin, Mumbo leaned over. "I'm gonna shoot Doc a message and see if he can help, alright? Now that you're, uh, awake."

Iskall nodded and Mumbo took out his communicator. 

MumboJumbo: Doc, can you come over?

Docm77: im pretty busy over here, what's up?

MumboJumbo: i need help repairing Iskalls eye...

Mumbo frowned and looked up, pausing for a minute before replying to the others in chat. "Doc seems busy. What is that guy working on anyways?"

"I think he's still set up in Area 77, right?" Grian absent-mindedly fiddled with the straps of his elytra. "He started building a _huge_ thing over there. Like, ginormous. I've seen it when i flew over to the new guy's village a few times. He's been on it for weeks, too."

"Well Doc building a huge... something always means trouble.", Mumbo said, half joking. 

"Why that?", Xisuma asked him, curiously. 

"Doc is know for... Well, he always exploits physics itself, to put it short. The world has its rules, and Doc always manages to find his way around them somehow." Mumbo shrugged. "It doesn't hurt anyone though, so its fine. Usually. Well, most of the time anyways."

"Well his creeper cannon definitely wasn't fine.", Grian added in, but he didn't seem to mean it too seriously. 

Mumbo laughed and checked his communicator again, seeing if anyone else had answered him. 

Stressmonster101: What did that plonker do this time!

Stressmonster101: You were looking for him the other day, right?

Cubfan135: I take it that you found him?

MumboJumbo: Yep! His eye is all busted up though.

Stressmonster101: Is he okay? :(

MumboJumbo: He's been mostly asleep yesterday

MumboJumbo: He's doing a bit better now, but i think something about respawn is weird

GoodTimesWithScar: Yeah, i can second that

"By the way, why do you think respawn is so weird?", Grian asked, after also checking his chat as well. 

Mumbo looked at him cluelessly. "Isn't that just how it is sometimes? You know, how sometimes the world gets all weird and laggy and can't keep up?"

The other three stared at him blankly.

"Do you think lag could do this?", Iskall then asked him, pointing to his entire him. 

"...hm, fair point." Mumbo agreed, but hesitated just a few moments too long to reply. "Never heard of memory loss either. I mean, i know it exists, but i never heard of anything like this that would cause it. Sorry, Xisuma..." He looked at Xisuma apologetically. 

"Don't worry about it, man! It's not your fault anyways!", Xisuma quickly tried to calm him down. 

"Seems like False has the same idea! Ah, wait..."

FalseSymmetry: Then there's also the issue with Xisuma's memory

ZomebieCleo: Yeah, this would be a lot easier if he were around to fix it...

ZombieCleo: There isn't anyone else with admin rights, right?

joehillssays: I don't believe so, unfortunately.

Xisuma's shoulders drooped down as he read this. He looked defeated. "This is exactly what i feared everyone would say...", he muttered, burying his helmet in his hands. 

"Aw, come on, Xisuma, no one is blaming you!", Grian quickly jumped in. "It's not your fault either, right?"

"I don't know! It might as well be!" Xisuma threw his hands up in exasperation. "Well, i don't know if it's my fault or not, but i could fix it if i wasn't like this!"

"Come on man, don't beat yourself up over it."

"Yeah look, the others have the same idea.", Mumbo chimed in, pointing to his communicator. 

Still upset, Xisuma looked at his own chat. 

Stressmonster101: :(

Stressmonster101: We should help Xisuma get better then!

Grian: so far, visiting his base and the shopping district has not brought his memories back...

Grian: hes staying in my base for now

"Yeah see, nothing has worked so far. I've been to my base, Mumbos base, I've been in the shopping district, you told me all your stories... But still, none of my memories came back..." Xisuma threw in, not meeting anyones eyes. 

Grian looked up from his communicator and propped his chin upon his hand. "Isn't that how it usually works? You show people their lives and friends and the places they go to and they regain their memories?"

"I don't know...", Xisuma sighed and raised his visor to rub over his eyes. He was getting tired of this, and the others could tell. 

"Couldn't you just look in the admin panels anyways...?" Iskall suggested quietly. The other two looked up to him. He winced slightly. "I mean, it can't be that complicated, right?"

Xisuma bit his lip, conflicted. "That.... if these admin powers are really that powerful, there's a lot that could go wrong if i mess it up."

"Come on man, you could just have a look.", Iskall begged him. "My head is killing me..."

"I... What would i even look for?" Xisuma switched the tabs on his communicator, going into the admin panel. The screen projected outwards from the device, creating a little screen for an better overview. Grian looked at it curiously. The command input line was blank, waiting patiently for any commands to be typed. The sight of the little marker blinking expectantly made Xisuma sick. He had no idea where to even start. 

"I don't know what..." Xisumas hand hovered over the keypad that had appeared in front of him, then sank down again. "I'm sorry Iskall, but i don't think this is a good idea."

"Oh!", Mumbo exclaimed suddenly. "Doc said he can come by later, Iskall." Relieved not to be center of attention anymore, Xisuma exited out of the admin panel. The others interrupted their conversation to check on the chat themselves to confirm.

Docm77: @M, i cant leave the raid farm like it is now

Docm77: give me a few more minutes

Docm77: i can come and help with iskalls eye in maybe like an hour

MumboJumbo: That would be great! :-)

Docm77: better not break anything else until i'm there then ;^)

Iskall gave Mumbo a weak thumbs up. "Nice. I hope i feel better then..."

"Why did you even, uh, tear it out in the first place?"

Iskall grimaced, running his fingers along his cybernetic. "It must have malfunctioned or something, i was getting weird inputs and images and everything. Was not very great."

Mumbo twirled the edge of his moustache. "That _does_ sound weird. Doc will know what to do, he's really good at this stuff. He'll figure it out, right?"

Hesitantly nodding, Iskall agreed. "He has helped me before. With the eye." Iskall still seemed very exhausted. He laid back down in his head and closed his eye, draping his arm over his face so the bright lights wouldn't blind him as much. The others let him rest for now.

Meanwhile, Xisuma was busy texting the other hermits in the group chat. Seeing as the topic of conversation has shifted away from him, and reading the supportive messages of the other hermits made him feel a little better. 

Cubfan135: well at least we know where X and iskall are, so they're safe

Cubfan135: maybe try not to die for the time?

Xisuma: maybe i would be safer if Grian would stop pushing me down his base...

Stressmonster101: Grian! you did what!!

Grian: it was only one time!

Grian: it was funny!

Xisuma: i hit my head and almost lost my memory again... smh...

TangoTek: Well, at least you didn't lose your humor! :')

Xisuma smiled slightly at the indignant noises Grian was making as he read the chat messages, then perked up as the communicator buzzed again with a new text. 

GoodTimesWithScar: ∴⍑ᒷ∷ᒷ ╎ᓭ ̇/╎ᓭ⚍ᒲᔑ

Cubfan135: scar?

Cubfan135: you good?

FalseSymmetry: What is this about?

Docm77: must've gotten your language settings wrong?

Docm77: haha

Grian frowned, then he and Mumbo shared a concerned look with each other. 

"This is weird.", Grian said finally, his voice being unusually serious. He checked his communicator again just to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. 

Xisuma was also confused, yet for entirely different reasons. "What does Scar want with _me_?"

"What he-... wait, you can read that mess?", Mumbo asked, confused. 

"Yeah? Is that-..." Xisuma did an double take on the message Scar had sent. "Oh yeah, it's in galactic. Does he... not usually write like this?" He already suspected the answer.

"No, i've never seen anyone write in galactic in chat." Mumbo pondered. "Most of us can't read it. I think Joe learned it mostly, Cub can read a few words, and Doc has a translator built into his mechanical eye. And apparently, you can read it as well..."

"Wait, what did Scar say?", Iskall asked Xisuma, startling the others. 

"He just wrote WHERE IS XISUMA, nothing else. Should i answer him?"

"Didn't i already write that you're in my base earlier?" Grian scrolled back up trough the messages. 

"...Maybe he didn't see it?", Mumbo suggested. All four of them shared concerned looks with each other. That wasn't a very convincing answer, at all. 

Grian: Scar?

Docm77: im gonna check on him on my way over

Docm77: im almost done anyways

Mumbo drew a face. "He seems so confused... That doesn't just sound like normal respawn issues to me. Besides, it's been like, three days since either of you died!" He pointed to Iskall and Xisuma as well. "Even if there's some bruises or headaches left from dying, they usually never last more than a few hours. 

Iskall nodded solemnly. "And it doesn't mess with your memories and your brain."

"Maybe we should talk to Scar... There's gotta be something we can do about all three of you." Grian crossed his arms in front of his chest. He was definitely not happy about this situation, with his friends being in pain and confused and everything. But he didn't know what to do about it, either. 

"Yeah, maybe..." Xisuma trailed off, not sure what else to say. 

"Well, out top priority is to get Xisumas memories back, right?", Mumbo suddenly asked. "Why don't you and Grian go and look at more things in this world, maybe that helps. I'll wait with Iskall for Doc to come over. I don't think there's much we can do about Scar at the moment unless he talks to us..."

Grian agreed, albeit hesitantly. "I suppose so... Hey X, do you like minecart rides? We could take the HRN line, it would give us a good look around town and you built some of the lines yourself, so maybe that'll bring back some memories."

Xisuma shrugged. "Yeah, gladly." He wasn't sure that showing him more things would help him get his memories back, but it was still better than to sit around and do nothing. So, he followed Grian out of his base towards the little station between his and Mumbos base. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was a tough chapter, since it was only dialogue and chatlogs.  
> Hope you enjoyed anyways, and thank you for reading!
> 
> edit: fixed the chat names!


	12. Doc is looking for his tools, but finds something entirely different.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you don't mind a bit of an A/N regarding updates! feel free to skip
> 
> this fic really surprised me!! i just keep on and on with it, and its quickly surpassed all my other published, unfinished and finished writings in word-count. i guess this happens when you write? you get better?? i cant believe this
> 
> i have a really bad habit of losing interest and the dropping project because there were too big, open-ended, and aimless.
> 
> so because i really don't want this to happen here, especially since i have now people who actively enjoy this and wait for the next chapter! (hi), theres some precautions i want to take:
> 
> 1\. i have all of the plot written out, i know where im going with this ans i know where i need to end up to wrap things together. granted, theres still some bits near the end i need to figure out, and a single plot point can stretch out anywhere between a sentence and a chapter, so i wouldn't give too much on that. were definitely only in the first half of the plot, possibly even the first third, and theres still much angst to be had :)
> 
> 2\. Upload schedule! i wanna keep myself going with this, and i want you guys to have something to look forward to, so im gonna try to upload a chapter at least once a week! upload day will probably be Wednesday, or maybe tuesday if im being impatient. if i suddenly have more than a chapter safely written i might throw in an extra weekend update, but ill definitely try my best to stick to Wednesday updates if life doesnt get in the way.
> 
> tl;dr: Updates will be on wednesdays! and i appreciate all of your lovely comments, a lot. <3
> 
> That being said, i decided to split the following chapter up, bc i wanted it to cut off at a specific point. so ch. 12 ended up a bit on the shorter side, but the next will come on wednesday! 
> 
> Thank you for reading!

Doc sighed, flicking the lever of his raid farm to turn it off. He had just been conducting various tests, working out the kinks in the item processing and making sure everything ran smoothly. Green light was encompassing him in a sickly glow. His ears were ringing with the constant noise of the raid battle horns, so he was glad when the pauses between them got longer and longer. The farm needed a few minutes to turn off.

Worry plagued him, tuning out the noises of the infernal farm he had constructed. What was going on with Scar? How did Iskall break his eye? Why had Xisuma still not regained his memories? Something was seriously wrong in their world. Doc equipped his trident and turned to the middle of the raid farm again. The collecting area was filled with Pillagers once more, so Doc got rid of them with a quick swing of his sword. One lone battlehorn cry rang trough the sky, then the noises of the giant green and blue-ish vortex slowed down and got lower and lower, powering down. Relieved, Doc waited for another minute to make sure the farm was safe to leave, then deemed it good enough. 

So while the occasional Pillager was still dropping down into the area in front of him, Doc sifted trough his shulker boxes to retrieve his gear and gather everything he would need to repair Iskalls mechanic eye. He had most of the tools on his person anyways, but he just wanted to make sure he didn't have to travel all the way back to New Hermitville. However, as he counted his various screwdrivers, he noticed that a few of them were, in fact, missing. _Ugh. Where would they be?_ He only ever needed these highly specific tools to repair his own cybernetics, they didn't get much use otherwise since they were only made for fine details. He scratched the stubble on his chin, thinking back. _When was the last time i repaired my eye?_

He thought back. His prosthetics hadn't broken during the whole Area77 plot at all, now that he thought about it. In fact, he hadn't had any troubles ever since the hermits had moved to New Hermitville, and that was now more than half a year ago. Before that... _Ah_. Doc remembered the day after the final battle of the civil war, when both teams had settled their differences and were all in the conference room of team Star, laughing. They had chatted with each other, telling the other team stories from their side and everyone was just generally having a nice day together after all of that craziness. Doc vividly remembered repairing his eye on that day after it had been broken by one too many nearby creeper explosions during the battle. Grian couldn't stop asking him about his eye that day. 

"Guess i'll have to check if my tools are still there... Aw, man...", Doc grumbled to himself while he threw the other tools he _had_ on him in a separate shulker box. The Star Team base was way off. And he still wanted to check on Scar, as well. "Well then, better get going."

The half creeper turned and jumped over the edge of the platform he was standing on, facing his farm after his wings had deployed once more. He caught sight of the laser beams fading away, and the vortex of light slowly dissolving into singular strands, and finally, nothing. Deafening silence fell over the area. Doc was satisfied and pulled a rocket, shooting into the direction of the main town of New Hermitville. He landed directly in the middle tower. Most of the Hermits were still using this portal, despite the fact that most of them had their own projects with their own nether portals scattered around the area. Doc didn't really pay mind to that, though, and just stepped trough.

The familiar sight of the long, ice-paved tunnel greeted him. Not bothering to take the boat, Doc just rocketed off the ground once more and zoomed trough the tunnel, making sure he wouldn't get caught on the trapdoors on the wall. The tunnel dragged on for longer and longer. 

Finally, Doc emerged from it, shooting out into the main nether hub. He soared trough the hole in the ceiling, circling down over the mini map of the main island. Which was the best portal to go through? After a moment of consideration, he stepped up to a portal to the south of the map, letting the purple swirls engulf him. 

He came out in the portal in Xisumas and Pythons Tower bay, just off from the Civil War Zone. It would be just a rocket boost over to the Star Team base. Impatiently, Doc climbed up onto one of the lower roofs of the Area to take off, but stopped when he saw something moving a way over. Just behind the fence that separated the Civil War Field from Tower Bay, on the shore, a person was wandering around. 

Doc quickly took off with a rocket to greet them, but then butchered his landing when he saw who it was. 

"Scar?!", he coughed out, mouth full of grass and dirt. "What are _you_ doing here?"

Scar turned around to face the hermit that had just so ungracefully landed next to him, a trench of destroyed dirt where his body had hit the ground. "Oh! Hey Doc."

Confusion was plastered all over Scars face. He looked tired, almost even more so than when Doc had last seen him, as the bags under his eyes were clearly visible. Scar also was noticeably paler than usually, and his face seemed a little sweaty. Most of all, he looked lost. At least he was still wearing his armor and elytra, which was reassuring, but he looked around himself like he didn't quite recognize where he was. 

"Scar, buddy, what are you doing all the way out here?", Doc asked him. He was genuinely concerned for his friend. Scar might be a little air-headed at times, but this was really weird, even for Hermitcraft standards. Not funny weird, either, just worryingly weird. 

"Uh. Well you see, Doc, i was just taking a walk! ...apparently." The last word was murmured so quietly that Doc almost missed it. But he didn't. 

"Apparently?"

Scar didn't meet his eyes. 

"Scar, what is going on with you?", Doc tried to reach him. "You can tell me when there's something going on, you know? In fact, you can talk to all of us. We're worried for you, man. You're behaving really weirdly in the last few days."

Scar looked at him, then at the ground. Then, he sighed. "I...", he started, then bit his lip. "I didn't want to worry you guys, but the truth is... something is weird." Scar sat down on the ledge of the fence around the War area, kicking up a bit of grass with his feet as he stared down at the floor. 

_Yeah, no shit something is weird!_ Doc silently nodded and calmly sat down next to him, waiting for him to continue. He could feel that it was hard for Scar to talk about this, apparently, so he just gave him some space to do so.

"You know how i was all bruise-y and hurt when i was over at Grians? I still have a bit of a headache ever since then, and my eye has been all itchy, and i'm tired all the time, and... i, uh..." Scar's fingers were nervously intertwined. "I keep, like, blacking out. Sometimes i suddenly wake up and i'm somewhere else than i was before, and i can't remember how i got there."

_Well that can't be good._

Doc's heart sank at Scars words. "You black out? Like, passing out?" He asked, trying to be as gentle as possible. "Is that also how you got here?"

"...I suppose so? I was just over walking trough the modern district, and BAM! Next thing i know i'm here." Scar looked around himself once more, letting his view gaze over the burning grounds of the Civil war and lingering on the looming shadows of Xisuma's skyscrapers in Tower bay. "That's such a random place, as well."

"...It _is_.", Doc agreed, his eyes not leaving Scar as if he was just gonna keel over any second. 

"Yesterday... or the day before that? Maybe? X and Ren picked me up in Xisumas base. Dunno how i got there either, i think i was on my way to Mumbos Witch farm? Ren brought me home, but i couldn't sleep very well. I don't know what's going on, Doc.."

Doc couldn't stand the downright terrified look Scar had in his eyes, and leaned over to put his left arm around him. "Scar, man, it's okay, right? We can get behind this." 

Scar still seemed insecure, but he rubbed over his face and then nodded bravely. 

Suddenly, Doc remembered something. "Hey Scar, do you remember writing this?" He opened up his chatlog and scrolled up, showing it to Scar. 

"...No...I don't. Ah, jeez..." Scar looked scared, trying to decipher the jumble of galactic symbols. "That must've been just now earlier, right?"

Doc nodded. "Are you sleepwalking, Scar?", he tried to crack a joke, but it didn't come off quite as funny as he wanted it to. 

"Apparently so." Scar gave him a weak chuckle anyways. He looked up to Doc, worry in his green eyes. "What do i do now, Doc? I can't ask Xisuma to look into it right now. Man, i hope _he_ is doing okay..."

 _That's just like him, always worried about other people even when he is obviously ill. Or, doing badly, i suppose._ The half-creeper scratched the back of his neck, thinking. "You should get some rest, Scar, if you can. I'm on my way over to Grian's right now, because Iskall needs some help with his eye.... ah, still need to get my tools...." He trailed off, remembering the tools that were presumably still in the Star team base. "I'll also see how X is doing. Let's ask Cub if he can look out for you a bit, okay?"

"I am perfectly capable of-...!" Scar looked like he wanted to protest, but then gave in. "...fine. Maybe Cub can tell me if i really do sleepwalk. Im really weirded out, Doc."

Doc didn't answer, and rubbed Scars shoulder sympathetically instead. He quickly took out his communicator to shoot Cub a text, then sat back with Scar. The sun was already way past noon, and Doc realized that he did kinda say to Mumbo and the others that he would be there soon, but he just couldn't leave Scar like that. 

"I still need to grab something from the Star Team base, wanna come with? Til Cub gets here."

"Yeah! That would be amay-zing!", Scar cheered weakly, trying to get his optimism back on. 

Doc nodded happily and the two of them got up. They made their way over the outskirts of the battle field, dodging the occasional ever-burning fire. Walking past the giant ghast cannon towers, they quickly made their way to the actual base. Doc led their way trough it, seeing as Scar didn't really know his way around the base, since he wasn't really involved in either of the civil war teams. He and Cub had just been doing their con-corp-y thing. Scar didn't seem too talkactive, so Doc led the conversation by telling him about his raid farm he was currently building. Scar didn't get too much of the redstone, being content just listening to Doc ramble on about it, but he did have a few suggestions of what Doc could include to the giant spaceship build around it. As expected, they were pretty good, and Doc mentally made himself a few notes. 

The scientist sifted trough the chests in the Storage area of the Star Team, and could soon locate a shulker box with his name on it and his tools in it. They were exactly the ones he was missing, so he wasted no time gathering up the various screwdrivers and tiny wrenches and threw them in his inventory with the rest of the equipment. Nodding to Scar, he then got out of the building again. It brought back some fun memories, but it wasn't a particularly fancy place to be in. He and Scar wandered over the battle field for a bit, now it being Scars turn to carry the conversation. He told Doc about his current project, a large-scale redstone factory, but his voice was tired and missing some of his usual enthusiasm. The pair of them settled down on the platform where Concorp had watched the final battle unfold, waiting for Cub to arrive. 


	13. The Duality of Doc's helpfulness: Part 1

Soon enough, Doc had given Scar into the worried hands of Cub, who, after explaining everything to him, had promised not to let Scar out of either his sight or Scar's bed. Scar himself couldn't agree more, and the duo had taken off into the direction of the Concorp area, leaving Doc free to finally fly into the direction of Grian's base. 

On the way over, he took a moment to notice the general feeling of unrest that had fallen over the Hermitcraft server. Chat was a lot quieter than usual, and everyone seemed hesitant to work on their projects. All of the hermits were worried about Xisuma, and now Scar was behaving weirdly as well. And Iskall! Honestly, there was just a lot of weird stuff going on, so no one was properly motivated to get up to their usual shenanigans and pranks. _No wonder everyone's so bummed out, considering Xisuma is out of commission like that. Not even working on my raid farm was particularly fun._ It was true, with the events of the recent days, Doc hadn't been able to concentrate very well. Even the shopping district seemed empty today, Doc noticed as he flew past it. He let out a sigh, focusing on the task at hand. 

It took him a few rockets to get there, but eventually he approached the fourth floor of Grian's base. It was mostly how he had last seen it, and he used the giant hole in the glass to fly in and skid over the concrete floor. Xisuma's bed was empty, but another similar bed with a headboard had been set up next to it. Iskall was sitting in it, blanket drawn around him. Mumbo was next to him, trying to shove some golden carrots into his direction. They were loudly bickering about something or another, from what Doc could make out, Mumbo was trying to get Iskall to eat something. Two more beds were in another corner of the room, although they weren't as fancily decorated. They just seemed to be to sleep in, not to nurse someone back to health. Doc remembered napping in one of them, but quickly assumed they were now used by Mumbos and Grians. 

The two present architechs looked up as they heard Docs heavy footsteps coming closer. Mumbo's face lit up "Doc! There you are! We've been wondering what took you so long."

"Sorry, I found... Well first of all, Iskall, how are you doing?" Doc plopped down the shulker box full of tools next to the bed, looking over his swedish friend. 

"Eh. You know, I've seen better days.", Iskall answered. Compared to Scar, he looked minimally better, physically speaking, but that wasn't worth much. He wasn't as pale or sweaty, but he had pretty dark circles under his eye as well. And, of course, his broken cybernetic stuck out like a sore thumb. Doc furrowed his brows as he tried to asses the damage. 

"Don't try to play tough, now! You look horrible, mate!", Mumbo disagreed, sounding exasperated, as if they'd had this exact same conversation before. Worry was clearly heard in his voice as he turned to Doc. "He's barely slept since i found him. He keeps like, spacing out and muttering to himself, and his eye hurts, and i really don't know hoe i can help him, but i've tried to get him to eat something and-...."

"Well i would _like_ to sleep-", Iskall started, struggling to keep track of his sentence. "But i can't fall asleep when my brain is full of thoughts!" 

"Full of thoughts?"

"Yes, it's like... I'm having thoughts that come from somewhere else? And memories i can't remember? Dreams? I don't know..." Iskall drew his blanket closer around himself, then rested his hand over his cybernetic eye. "Stupid eye keeps hurting..."

"Well, i don't think i can help you with your brain... buuut... i think i can do something about your eye, though.", Doc said, sitting down at the edge of the bed. Mumbo shuffled over to give him some space. "Let me have a look, alright?"

Iskall drew a grimace as Doc took out various screwdrivers and spare parts and laid them on the bed, but nodded. He never really liked it when Doc was working on his eye, as it was a pretty sensitive piece of technology and also attached to quite a lot of nerves. Basically, repairing it was always somewhere on the scale between mildly unpleasant and fairly painful, but he had never had the entire center piece torn out like this. 

"I know, i know, sorry.", Doc had the same train of thought. After all, he had his own cybernetic eye. "But it can't get much worse than this anyways, right?"

"...Fair enough.", Iskall agreed. 

There was a moment of silence as Doc took a closer look at Iskalls face, frowning at the damage. It wasn't to bad, but he would need to replace some metal outlining and then slot the center piece back in and re-connect it to the optical nerve wiring. Not very pleasant, but do-able. That was, if the centerpiece was still there. "Do you...?"

"I picked the diamond bit up when i found him.", Mumbo said as if he had read Docs mind. He stretched out his lanky arm to reach over to the nightstand, and handed Doc the missing piece. 

"Thanks." The half-creeper inspected it, then decided he would first work on smoothing out all the dents and kinks in the metal around the diamond. He grabbed a tiny hammer and got to work. "So-", he started to interrupt the slightly awkward silence. "Iskall, when you say you keep having thoughts... and memories? What do you mean?"

Iskall hummed thoughtfully. "You know when you see something and think you've seen it before, but can't say where or why?"

"Deja-vu?", Mumbo supplied, watching Docs work with interest.

"Yes! That. It's similar to that. Uhm... There are things that i remember doing, even though i never did them? Does that make any sense?"

"...Not really.", Doc chuckled. He was done with the center piece, so he re-aligned himself and sat down opposite of Iskall, leaning over to reach his eye piece. He slowly unscrewed the outer casing to take it off to have better access. "What kind of things do you remember doing?"

"Well, building buildings that i know aren't mine... a lot of travelling on routes i don't usually take... theres a lot of memories about Tu-ouch!" Iskall flinched when Doc accidentally touched one of the wires that were sticking out of the broken eye, sending weird electrical signals into his brain. 

"Sorry.", Doc muttered, concentrating on not losing any parts of Iskalls eye as he replaced one of the inner metal circles that had gotten bent out of shape. 

"Also, there's some things that i have like... weird feelings about? Like i know them from different... stories, or something, or have multiple opinions about them." Iskalls face drew into a confused expression, at which Doc scowled.

"Stop moving your eyebrows, man. What kind of things? Blocks?", he asked him to go on, mostly so that Iskall would be distracted now that Doc was getting to the delicate parts. He needed to replace and re-arrange some of the wires that had been torn out, and there was a good chance that would send anything from weird tingles to smaller pain spikes into Iskalls brain. 

"Diorite?", Mumbo snickered somewhere from the side. 

"Actually, _yes Mumbo_ , diorite. It is - ow! - it is disgusting, but also funny for some reason!" Iskall whined as Doc pulled on a wire, but did his best to stay still and focus on listing things he felt weird about. "Then there's also lanterns. I never really thought about them, you know? But at the same time, i feel like they're pretty neat, and like i've used them before even though i also know i didn't and-....ugh! It's so exhausting, because i keep thinking about things, and thinking about why i am thinking about them, and thinking about thinking about them, and then they feel like they're in my head too much and OW! Come on, man!" Iskall glared at Doc, who just shrugged it off and dropped the broken wires next to the bed. 

"I need to replace those, hold still just a little longer, alright?"

Iskall grumbled, but tried his best to relax and keep still and Doc twisted the new wires into place. 

"What other items?" Doc prompted him as he grabbed his soldering tool, ready to connect the new wires. Best to distract Iskall some more. He tried to work as delicately as possible, careful not to clank his metal hand against Iskalls eye too much. It didn't make the nicest of noises, and Doc was already trying to be as considerate as possible. Iskall had enough going on in his brain already. 

"Well, there's also Mycelium, which part of me really hates now. But the other part of me doesn't really care. And i really want to drink some milk."

"Milk??", Doc asked, leaning back as most of his work was done. He grabbed the center piece from the blanket, turning it in all directions to see if it was good to go or still had some residual damage. He then decided to quickly run a scan over it, just to be sure. 

"Are you sure it won't do weird inputs anymore?", Iskall asked Doc, suddenly sounding really insecure. He rubbed his hand over the skin around his eye, which had been getting sore as Doc worked his magic/science. 

"I re-calibrated it, so it should work perfectly fine.", Doc insisted, cutting off a piece of cable that was just a little too long from the diamond piece. "Are you sure it was the eye, though? It shouldn't be malfunctioning from respawning, and, well, considering you have all these weird... memory... things going on?"

"Oh yeah! Maybe the eye was just an extra input, and your brain couldn't handle everything at once?", Mumbo chimed in. "That might make sense. I mean, the whole situation doesn't, really, but you know..."

"Hmm.", Iskall hummed, crossing his arms. "Mmmmaybe. I don't really remember. There's still a lot going on in my brain."

"Unless usually." Mumbo threw in, laughing. Unfortunately for him, he was in kicking range of Iskalls legs, so now he was clutching his ribs as he was laughing even more. 

Doc snorted, having finished his inspection of the central eye piece. 

He took a moment to look at Iskall. They hadn't talked about it, but it was fairly obvious to Doc that Iskall had torn out the cybernetic himself. Maybe not fully conscious, but still. Even Doc, who was pretty hardcore if he would say so himself, shuddered at the thought of yanking out his own eye. It must have been a pretty desperate situation. Before his thoughts could drift further into that direction, shook his head and cleared his throat, drawing the other twos attention to himself. 

"Alright, Iskall, are you ready for this?"

"No, but go on.", Iskall said, his face twisting into a nervous grin. 

Ideally, the center piece would fall right into position, but the feeling of it re-connecting to the optical nerves and starting back up was always overwhelming, and usually very painful. Both Iskall and Doc knew this, and they were also aware that there wasn't really a nice way around it. 

Doc got up, clearing away most of his tools save for a tiny screwdriver. He was done with them anyways for now, and he didn't want to risk losing them again, so he properly stored them in his shulker box before cramming the entire thing back into his inventory. It was getting pretty cluttered. Some random Raid farm loot drops had gathered together, there were a few redstone components, two shulker boxes, some eggs that must have wandered into his inventory as he had made his way trough Grians base... Doc shook his head, irritated. This wasn't the time to look at his inventory! "Mumbo, can you, uh..." His eyes went to Iskall, then back up. "...hold him down a little?"

"What? What are you doing to him?"

"I just need to fit the final piece back in, and it don't want him accidentally hitting me and messing it up."

"Oh." This did nothing to calm Mumbos worries, but he walked over to the other side of the bed and awkwardly put his hands on Iskalls shoulders. "Right."

Iskall rolled his normal eye. "Just get it over with, man." He lied back down on the bed and Doc came closer. Iskall was sweating, looking at Doc with some sort of nervous anticipation. However, Mumbo seemed even more nervous, both trying to stay close to comfort Iskall - and hold him - and trying to move as far away from Doc as possible. It was a funny sight. However, Doc banned it from his mind to focus, channeling his attention onto the cybernetics. 

"Sorry about this, Iskall."

The half-creeper connected the remaining wires of the eye and the centerpiece, and then slotted it into the recess in Iskalls eye piece with his thumb as smoothly and quickly as possible. He felt it clicking into place. 

Iskall screamed out from the sudden pain spike, involuntarily lashing out and hitting Mumbo in the chin with his elbow. Then, he went limp. 


	14. The Duality of Doc's helpfulness: Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bonus mini-chapter!
> 
> (if you haven't read ch. 13 yet, make sure to do that first as i uploaded it earlier today!)

X yawned as he followed Grian back into his base. The two of them had been travelling around the main hermit island the entire day, riding the HRN minecart line and looking at the different districts. Now, he was tired. The sun was already setting as the two returned to Grians base, wandering in trough the main entrance and dropping down onto Grians lower floor full of shulker boxes.

During their day, X didn't magically get any memories back, but a lot of the places and buildings seemed familiar to him. The old feeling of 'I've seen that before but cant quite put my finger on it' hadn't left him the whole time, and it was annoying. By now he knew he should have memories of these places, but they just... weren't there. It was like these parts of his brain just had disappeared when he respawned several days ago.

To top it all off, he still had a slight headache going on. It hadn't really gone away ever since he woke up without his memories, and it gnawed at him, constantly wearing him down. Additionally, a few minutes before they came back his left eye had suddenly stung like he had stared into the sun directly. Grian had been instantly worried. It was just a momentary flash though, as the feeling had faded as quickly as it came. However, X couldn't help but think there was something more to this. His eye had been sore and itchy the last few days, and now this? Well, at least it had subsided now, 

All in all, he was glad when he was back at the homely sight of Grian's messy base. He really looked forward to falling into his bed and sleeping a good few hours.

"I'm gonna get us some food, i must have something around here...", Grian mentioned, wandering off to open his chests one after the other in search of something edible.

Exhausted, X sat down on one of the Shulkers at the edge of the mess and watched him. He idly wondered how Iskall was doing, but he didn't hear anything from upstairs. Everything was calm, and X let out a small sigh.

Chat had been barely active that day, and they had seen barely any other hermits that day. Ren had been working on new buildings next to his dojo, and had waved to them as they drove by in the HRN minecarts. Later that day, they had found a woman roaming the shopping district. Her red hair had flared up between the buildings as she had checked a small shop with armorstands in front of them, and then flew off again. Grian had explained to him that this was Cleo, a zombie, and a master of armorstand posing. They had come across her pirate town later that day, and onc more X was severely impressed by all the skilled people on this server. 

All of the sudden, he heard a loud, sharp hiss directly next to his ear, tearing X out of his thoughts quite brutally. He had never heard a noise like this before, but for some reason, it was absolutely _bone-chilling_. It triggered some primal survival instict in him, and all he thought was _i need to get away from this_ as he nearly fell over, scrambling away forwards, away from this horrifying noise. X yelped as he fell face first onto the ground, blinded by sheer panic. _What is this???_

The hiss continued on, but then turned into a low chuckle.

Heart still beating in his chest, X looked around, confused. Behind the shulker box he was sitting on stood Doc, grinning and laughing quietly, his trident resting on his shoulder.

"Told you you just needed a good scare to remember!", he said proudly, sharp teeth showing in a grin that seemed to split his entire face.

"Jeez, don't do that to me!", X protested weakly, hand clutching his chest. He was still sitting on the floor. "Also i didn't remember anything! I was just scared by instinct!"

Doc shrugged. "Well, it was worth a try. At least we know your flight response still works."

Grian came over to them, also laughing at the whole situation. He handed X half a stack of steaks, which he gratefully accepted and tore right into. "How is Iskall doing?", he then asked Doc, chomping down on his own food.

A frown replaced Docs grin. "I repaired his eye, but he passed out. He's sleeping now, but he said that his head is all weird, like having memories that shouldn't be there."

"Ah, just the opposite of me then." X lamented as he finished his meal. "I'm missing memories that _should_ be there."

All three of them stopped dead in their tracks, then shared a look between them.

"Do you think...?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short note: in my plot outline, chapter 12, 13 and 14 were all belonging to the same plot point. doc goes to help iskall, finds scar along the way, and then there a bit where he scares x.
> 
> but they just kept talking, and i also thought breaking it up like this made more sense story-flow wise, so please forgive these few awkwardly paced and short chapters.
> 
> and since y'all pretty much figured it out already, i might as well post it directly!


	15. Sleeping peacefully: The most unrealistic part of this fanfiction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... i need to remember to change the date on pre-drafted chapters or they won't show up as new

X

"So what you're saying is,", Mumbo started, disbelievingly. "You think that somehow Iskall ended up with Xisuma's memories?"

"I mean, it's a possibility, right?", Grian said with an excited smile. 

"How...?", Mumbo asked him. Doc, Grian and Xisuma had come up to the fourth floor, and now they were - once more - all gathered around Iskalls bed. Iskall was still unconscious. Outside of Grians base, it had gotten dark, as the night had since fallen. 

"Look at it like this, man.", Doc started. "Iskall says there's too much going on in his head, right? And Xisuma is missing his memories. Iskall was talking about having weird opinions about things, while Xisuma straight up forgot things."

"Weird opinions about things?", Grian asked.

"He said it was like he knew things from different sources? Like more sources than his brain.", Doc tried to put into words how he interpreted Iskall's confused rambling. 

"What things?"

Mumbos brows wrinkled as he tried to remember. "Well uh, diorite, firstly..." Doc and Grian tried to surpress a mischievous grin. "Then he was talking about Lanterns... Milk... Mycelium..."

Grians face lit up at the mentioned items. "Oh, oh! I got something!", he suddenly yelled, jumping to his feet. "Eggsuma, do you still have that shulker box with items you forgot?"

"Ah, yeah! Hold on." Xisuma reached into his inventory, plopping down a shulker box on the floor. Mumbo and Doc curiously peeked inside. 

"You know, you might be onto something here.", Doc started, turning around some of the items in his hands. 

"How? That's just pretty random stuff...", Mumbo frowned, looking at a singular lantern. "Ohhh wait. I see. It's the same things!"

"Yeah!! look, theres the diorite! The lanterns, the milk! I didn't have any mycelium, but i would bet my diamonds that X doesn't know what that is." Grian looked up to Xisuma for confirmation. 

"My see...? No, don't know. Do i owe you diamonds now?", X asked with a concerned chuckle. 

"See! It's the same things!!"

"So you really forgot creepers?" Doc was holding the creeper head that Grian had put in the box, turning it towards X as he was facing him. He gave him a sad frown to mirror the creepers expression, then laughed. "But you did get scared when i hissed at you earlier." 

Now that he saw them side by side, it was pretty clear to X that Doc was at least some form of... creeper. The faces were too similar, the shade of green too matching to be anything else. _Interesting._ Remembering Doc's question, he nodded. "I don't remember these... creepers itself, but i thing my subconscious remembers my reaction to them? Which was, fear, that's why i got so startled."

"Huh.", Doc simply said, putting the creeper head back into the chest. 

"Alright, so, there's a possibility that Xisuma's memories ended up in Iskalls brain!" Grian seemed way too excited about solving this riddle. 

X took a moment to process their theory. With the evidence they had so far, it seemed likely, but it was still absolutely mind-boggling. Why would his memories end up in Iskall? And more importantly, how would he get them back? Neither Iskall nor he were particularly happy with their situation, that much was sure. Could the admin stuff solve this? X decided he would have a proper look at it the next morning. Honestly, if he had learnt to use it once in the past, he could probably do it again, right? No matter how long it took. There had to be some sort of... instructions, or help with the whole thing. Maybe he just needed to look in his communicator some more. He was still hesitant to mess around with anything, but surely looking at it wouldn't hurt anyone, right? _I'm gonna try that tomorrow, right when i wake up._ , he determined for himself. _Apparently I'm the only one who has the 'rights' to meddle with this stuff, so it's only fair to Iskall if i at least try it, right?_

His train of thought was interrupted by Mumbo, who was still coming to terms with the whole memory issues. 

"Wait wait, hold on. How would that even happen? That doesn't make any sense.", Mumbo complained. 

"Well you two... and Scar... died at the same time, right? That must have something to do with it." Doc proposed, looking at Xisuma. 

X tried to scratch his head, fingers landing on his helmet. "I don't... know? That doesn't seem like a thing that just happens."

"Yeah, i gotta agree with that. Nothing like this has ever happened." Mumbo crossed his arms defiantly. 

Grian ruffled trough his hair, his energy deflating as he realized they had hit another dead end. "Maybe the world just went weird when they died at the same time?" 

"Then what about Scar? He doesn't look good, but he didn't seem to have any memory issues..." Doc blinked, then waved his hand dismissively. "Actually, scratch that. He said he keeps blacking out and doesn't remember what he did in that time."

Worry seeped in Grians voice. "What? Like sleepwalking? That doesn't seem good."

"Is he okay? I mean, beyond... that.", X asked, equally worried. He had only met Scar two times so far, but he seemed like a sweet and kind guy, and X would hate it if anything happened to Scar because of him. 

"Well, we talked for a while, and he was generally tired and nervous. Seemed scared, the poor guy. I asked Cub to watch out for him for the time, so he is in good hands."

The thought of Cub looking after Scar seemed to relieve some of Grian's and Mumbo's worries, as they let out an relieved breath. X relaxed a little, too. The others apparently trusted Cub with this, so he should do so, too. 

"Who is Cub?", he asked the others anyways, always curious about the other hermits. 

Doc turned towards him, giving him a rare genuine smile. "He and Scar are best friends, they do a lot of projects together. Practically inseparable. They have a large company called ConCorp, on the west side of the island, and then there's the whole thing with the ConVex and everything... Ahh, good times."

"Ah, i think we came by that place earlier today!", X agreed, thinking back to their minecart travels around the Island. The ConCorp area had been massive, with some really impressive buildings within the perimeter. So that was Scar and Cub's project, then. 

Meanwhile, Mumbo was checking on Iskall, who was still asleep. The swede seemed more relaxed, and apparently finally had a bit of decent sleep instead of turning and tossing around in his bed. Also, his face wasn't pinched together in pain anymore. Satisfied with the results, Mumbo pulled up the blanket over Iskall some more, then yawned. 

"Oh jeez, i'm absolutely knackered... Grian, do you mind if i stay over some more?", Mumbo asked his friend, already on his way to one of the spare beds at the other end of the room. 

"Of course! How dare you sleep here, Mumbo Jumbonio! These are my beds!" Grian answered in a fake-offended voice. 

"Cheers." Mumbo simply smiled at him, then fell face first into the pillows. He laid motionless for a few moments, then managed to pull off his armor and suit jacket and crawled under the blanket. 

Grian snickered at the sight, then turned to the other two. "Wanna stay over too, Doc? You look pretty tired as well."

Doc stared at Grian for a second, then looked out of the window into the night. Then, he looked to the invitingly soft looking beds in the room. "Sure.", he finally shrugged. "We should tell Iskall our theory in the morning, when he feels better."

"Yeah, maybe he can tell us more about what he is actually seeing in his head?" Xisuma agreed. He stood up from his spot next to Iskalls bed, stretching out his arms. A yawn came over him as well. 

"We should probably all go to- uaaahhh, to sleep..." Another yawn took over half of Grians sentence. "Jeez, talk about yawning being contagious." He rummaged trough his inventory, looked trough two of the shulkerboxes he was carrying, and then finally crafted up another bed at one of the crafting tables, seeing as Doc had already claimed the remaining one by draping his labcoat over the end. 

Xisuma also walked over to his bed. "Well then, goodnight...", he murmured, already half overtaken with sleep as he huddled into the sheets. 

"Yeah, sleep well!", Grian said quietly, before placing his new bed down near Mumbo's and Docs and flopping onto it. 

Soon, the room was filled with soft snores. 

* * *

Iskall

Iskall woke up early at sunrise the next morning. He blinked into the room confusedly, not sure what was going on. Then, he remembered the events of the previous day, and involuntarily grasped for his cybernetic eye. Surprisingly... it seemed fine. It wasn't hurting anymore, and he heard the faint whirring of the mechanics activating like they did every time he woke up. He blinked a few more times to adjust as his depth perception was restored once more. 

Now seeing more sharply, he sat up on his bed and took a few minutes to take everything in. Orange-yellow-ish light flooded the room from the east where the sun was rising over the horizon slowly. He heard low breathing and snoring around him. He still was in Grian's base, on the fourth floor, and so was Xisuma who was sleeping peacefully in a bed a few blocks off from him. On the other side, he could see three more beds near the wall of the room. Doc seemed to sleep like a stone, his labcoat on the floor next to the bed. Grian was turning and moving in his sleep, and at the farthest bed, Iskall could just about see Mumbos moustache peek out from the blankets. He smiled at the sight. 

He remembered the whole ordeal he had gone trough as Doc had repaired his eye, and grimaced slightly. He ran his finger over the diamond eye again. Everything seemed in place and as it should be. His eye wasn't hurting anymore, and the visual inputs he was getting from it seemed fine as well. However, he still had a lot of thougths racing trough his mind, but it was a bit calmer and more manageable than the day before. He had had a lot of weird dreams during the night, but couldn't quite make sense of them. Iskall remembered them being very elaborate and long, mixing various experiences and memories that were running trough his head the past days. The contents of the dream were fading quickly, though.

He sighed quietly and rubbed his forehead. There was still a faint headache he was having, but overall he was feeling miles better. Maybe he was adjusting to the foreign thoughts in his head? 

Iskall took a moment to linger on his thoughts. The image of him walking trough Xisuma's base came up first. Somehow, he remembered this being five days ago, but he also was very certain that he hadn't been at Xisuma's base for weeks. The conflicting feelings made his brain hurt, so he tried to think of something else. He thought of his sword. The name 'Xisuma's sword' came into his mind. Iskall blinked, confused and irritated. _That's not my sword! My sword is the Iskallibur IV!_ Before he could worry about what it meant that he remembered Xisuma's sword as his own, though, he froze as he remembered something else. _Iskallibur!_

A wave of shock and dread washed over him when he realized that none of his tools and items were on his person. _Oh no! Did they despawn when i died? Did someone pick them up? My armor and my wings! And my pickaxes!_ Upset, Iskall wrangled himself out of his blanket and looked around the room. He didn't see any chests except the one directly next to Xisuma's bed. He quickly opened his inventory to confirm he really didn't have anything on him, then patted down his pockets. At least his communicator was still there. 

Iskall swung his legs out of the bed and walked over to the chest next to Xisuma's bed, still a bit wobbly on his feet. He tried to make as little noise as possible as he opened the chest to see if there was any of his stuff, or something otherwise useful. Unfortunately it was all just get-better-soon wishes from the other hermits, and what looked like left over junk from building and decorating the little walls around the beds. The only thing that caught his eye was a diamond, and a quick check revealed that it had been named ‘For Shishwammy, to play some RUN and feel better’.

 _That's right, RUN! Maybe my items are still there after the creeper explosion? If no one was in the area, maybe they haven't despawned? Or someone might have oicked them up, i think Keralis is there often enough._ With his only plan being to check the RUN build for his lost items, Iskall made his way over to the center of Grian's base. His mind was set on his items, banishing all weird memories and experiences. He could deal with that later, he was tried of it anyways. He stared down the middle, not sure how to proceed. He couldn't very well just drop down without an elytra, and after his... experience when he last respawned, he would prefer not to die again any time soon. So, he had to find another way down. He looked around the room once more, and, luckily, saw a small indent in one of the three pillars along the room. A water elevator. 

Iskall made his way across the huge room. Then, he suddenly got the idea that _maybe_ it wasn't such a good idea to leave Mumbo, Grian and the others without telling them anything. He knew how worried they had been about him, so it probably wouldn't be the best if they woke up and found him missing. Best to leave them a note of some sort, right? He remembered the wood and leftover materials he had seen in Xisuma's chest, and turned around to get them. 

It took him a few minutes as he couldn't quite concentrate on the task at hand, but he managed to craft some wooden signs with what was left in the chest. He left one of them near his bed, with a message to the others that he would be getting his backup gear and then returning to Grians base.

With new energy and determined to get his stuff back - or at least retrieve his backup gear from his base - Iskall gave one last look to his sleeping friends, then stepped into the elevator. 

As the water rushed around him and pulled him downwards, more thougths bubbled up in his head. Iskall now realized they were all about builds that he knew were constructed by Xisuma. Still not wanting to deal with whatever that implied, Iskall tried to drown it out by repeatedly listing his Items he was missing most in his head. _Iskallibur... my sword. Batwings... my elytra. Silky... my silk touch pickaxe. Splitter... my regular axe. DIE-orite... you know. WHOAH! Superman... my bow. Iskallibur..._

This tactic prove to be very efficient at distracting him, as he didn't even think to have a look in the enderchest on Grian's lower floor as he stepped into the nether portal. 


	16. Scar, Cub, and Matthew MaCawnaughey have a bit of a rough morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> impatient tuesday update!!  
> i've been looking forward to this chapter for a long time.

Scar

Dizzyness encompassed Scar, which confused him. As far as he knew, he should be asleep. He tried to open his eyes, his vision going from black to a slightly less dark black. It was like a reverse process of passing out, something that he had become all too familiar with in the past few days. Was this another of those instances? Was he just dreaming? No, he was pretty sure he wasn't dreaming, as he could turn his head and look around at free will. There wasn't much to look at, though. He was in some sort of void, with only black, slightly static-y nothing-ness around him. It confused his brain as he tried to look farther away, like it couldn't quite process not getting any inputs from his surroundings. 

As he had gotten into the habit of every time he had blacked out in the past days, he quickly tried to recall the last thing he remembered. _I was at ConCorp, with Cub. We had some cake and hot chocolate, i told him what was going on, and then he sent me to bed._ He bit his lip, slightly guilty at how long he had hesitated to tell anyone what was going on. He thought he could handle it. He thought it was just a little weirdness around respawn. Apparently, it was something else, something he couldn't quite make sense of. Scar realized he must have bitten his lip way harder than he intended to, as he tasted blood. 

_Right. I should be asleep. Where am i, then?_ He looked around again, not getting any new information. Or, _any_ information at all. He was also confused. Even if he had one of those weird blacking outs, he didn't know what this was. It had always just been him losing consciousness and waking back up on the Hermitcraft server, usually somewhere different than he woke up. 

At first, it had just been a few blocks over, so he thought that maybe he fell over unfortunately or something. The next time it had happened, he woke back up to some of his chests having been raided, the contents scattered around the floor and his inventory. The third time, he came back to senses in the redstone circuits of Xisumas base, after being just on the flight towards Mumbo's industrial area to pick up some items from him. He never knew for how long he was really out, but the amount seemed to grow from seconds to minutes every time it happened. The next two days, he had tried to lay low. He couldn't quite sleep well, partly because he was scared he would wind up somewhere else in his sleepwalking antics, partly because he was just feeling awful in general. He had stuck around his current project, the Cherry Redstone factory. He was just building away. Every so often, he would pass out again, usually winding up just outside of the factory or even at the border of the island. 

Yesterday, though, he was forced to leave the factory as he had to gather up more materials. After being on a small shopping spree in the shopping district, he had made his way trough the modern area on foot, as he tried to keep his elytra-flying to a minimum since he couldn't quite predict when he would black out again. A wise decision, as it turned out, since the next time he woke up he found himself wandering around at the edge of the civil war field, with Doc finding him shortly after. Apparently, he had also written in Galactic in chat. _What was that all about? I don't even know any Galactic!_ Afterwards, a really worried Cub had picked him up and brought him back to ConCorp, where he _should_ now be asleep in his bed. But, despite that, he was... here.

Scar looked around himself once more. He realized he wasn't actually standing on anything, instead just kinda... hovering in the nothingness. There was no ground, no ceiling, no walls. Curiously, he lifted his own hands to look at them, getting dizzy by not having anything for his eyes to anchor on. He was wearing dark gloves, which was weird. Scar couldn't remember ever wearing gloves regularly, except maybe when it was snowing. The gloves looked different though, as they had a little bit of armor plating on the back of his hand. _Weird._

He had another idea, and opened up his inventory. This was another thing that didn't usually happen in dreams, but to his surprise it worked. It looked pretty brutal, if he was quite honest. Not the stuff he would carry around. He had a full set of gear, full with elytra and diamond armor, none of which was named. The enchants were... well, it wasn't 'god armor' of any sorts, but they were fairly decent. He had a diamond sword on him, a bow, and beyond that, only a bit of food and an iron pickaxe. The rest of his inventory was pretty much filled up with arrows and rockets. _Extra weird._

Scar twisted his body, trying to turn around to see if there was anything behind him. He slowly drifted around, moving trough the void as if it was syrup. He realized how slowed his movements were, as if he was captured in a perpetual state of slow-mo. Finally, he did a full turn, and saw a small green glowing sphere hovering a good few meters - blocks? - away from him. It was out of arms reach, and he couldn't move forwards to it. Looking at him gave him... a weird feeling. Warm, sunny. It let all his good memories bubble back up, the fun he had with his friends, the builds he had made, the stories he had told. It reminded him of Jellie, his cat, and her silky soft fur. It reminded him of Cub, and Concorp, and their Vex adventures they had had in the past one and a half years. It reminded him of Doc and Area77, the mysteries they had solved, the fun they had had when the hippies had constantly tried to get in there. It felt like all of that, and much more. It felt like home. 

At this moment, Scar was pretty certain that he was looking at the Hermitcraft server itself. 

_Wait, does that mean i am outside the server? How did i end up here? How do i get back in?_ A strong sense of loneliness and... yearning crushed over scar, made his heart ache. He had to get back! He wanted to get back home. Back to Jellie, back to Doc, back to all of the others. Back to Cub, who had promised to stay by his side as Scar had fallen asleep yesterday. 

Scar struggled, first trying to just float over, then starting to flail his hands and arms more and more as nothing worked. The void held him tightly in its grip, embracing him, making movement harder and harder. The sphere that was everything to him seemed so close, and yet so far. Panicking slightly, Scar tried even harder to reach, his muscles tsarting to strain. 

He felt lost.

Tears were spilling down his face, but he couldn't wipe them away. 

He felt himself get weaker. Dizzyness encompassed him, stopping his movement, and making him blink to make it go away. He saw black splotches at the corner of his vision, feeling how he slowly started slipping away. _Oh no, not again! I need to go back! I need to... need to....._ His eyes closed shut, and he felt cold and numbness creeping into his limbs. His body felt like a block of lead. the dizzy feeling got stronger, and soon overwhelmed him, taking over his thoughts and consciousness.

When Scar came back to his senses, he first noticed he wasn't hovering in the encaptivating void anymore, or lying on his bed. No, he laid on something hard, hurting his back, with a heavy weight pinning him to the floor. A hand was pushing down onto his chest, his right arm hurt as it was restrained against the harsh wooden floor, and as he confusedly looked up, he looked right into the barrel of a crossbow, loaded with a firework rocket. It was pointed straight at him. The crossbow was very familiar, as well. 

"...Cub?", Scar asked timidly, his voice cracking as his breath hitched. He tilted his head slightly to look past the crossbow, which made the person on top of him tighten his grip on his shirt and putting even more weight on his chest. It really was Cub, that beard couldn't belong to anyone else. However, he had an expression in his face that Scar had never before seen. He looked strained, agonized, focused on holding him at gunpoint - _or, i suppose, firework-point?_ \- but also, Cub looked downright _terrified_.

Scar was petrified. He had never seen Cub like that, and it was scary. Cub was his friend. His best friend. Why would he fight against him like that? Why would he point his crossbow at him? He could barely breathe.

"... Cub?", Scar asked again, softer this time. Cub narrowed his eyes, and Scar gulped, trying his best to stay still and not move as to not startle Cub any more. His wrist was twisted painfully, and he was extremely uncomfortable, but then again, that was probably the point by Cub restraining him. After a few long seconds, Cub ever so slightly relaxed his Crossbow, meeting Scar's eyes. 

"Scar?" 

"Y-yes, it's me. What-... why are you...?" The words got stuck in Scars throat as he saw Cubs expression shift, turning from anger into sorrow. 

"Oh, Scar!" The crossbow clattered to the floor, and Scar suddenly found himself in a crushingly tight hug. He couldn't see Cub's face, but his breath hitched as Scar gingerly put his arms around him, hugging him back. Was he crying? 

"What is going on, Cub?" Scar asked his friend, looking around the room. They were on the floor a few blocks away from Scars bed. The room looked... chaotic. destroyed. Things were strewn across the floor, torn out of the shelves and from the walls. The pillow and the blanket from the bed were on the ground as well, half torn apart. Scar could see a twinkle in the darkness, and realized it were the eyes of Jellie. She was under the bed, eyes wide and tail bushy. Her fur was all fluffed up, and she looked spooked. 

"Hey there, Jellie. Come on, it's me!" Scar held out a hand to the cat. She drew back further at first, but after a few moments she slowly started crawling forwards until she emerged from the bed, trotting over to him. She carefully sniffed his hand, then looked at him. Her fur smoothed down, and finally she tentatively rubbed her had against his palm. He started petting her. It was soothing for both of them. 

Cub, in the meanwhile, had managed to get his composure back. He sat back up, rubbing his sleeve over his face a few times and then stored his crossbow back in his inventory. Then, he took a long look at Scar. 

Scar met his eyes, confused. He gave his friend a well-meaning but also slightly befuddled smile. Cub relaxed at the sight, sighing and apparently losing all energy. 

"What happened, Cub? Did i... uh, did i sleepwalk?" He couldn't imagine Cub having such a violent reaction to him sleepwalking. 

"Well...", Cub started, then cleared his throat. "You were sleeping pretty normally the whole time, with Jellie all cuddled up to you." His eyes softened as he also reached over to the tabby cat to pet her as well. "All of the sudden, she got startled, and.... and started hissing at you. Never seen her do that before. I tried to catch her, but she ran away and hid under the bed. Then, i noticed you were... uh, awake. You looked at me, and you looked super annoyed for some reason."

"Annoyed??" That didn't make sense. Why on earth would he be annoyed at Cub? And he would never do anything to hurt Jellie, she must know that, right? "What did i do then?" Telling Cub about his weird probably-not-a-dream would have to wait, it was more important that he was okay. 

Cub shot im a concerned look. "You, uh, you started muttering something and threw your pillow and blanket across the room. Then, you yelled something about Xisuma - you called him a scumbag - and jumped up, and tried to get away. I, uh, i tried to stop you, but you fought back and.... and..." Cubs voice broke, and Scar felt his heart ache a little at the sight. However, Cub shook his head and managed to muster enough strength to tell the rest of it. " You started fighting me, punched me and everything. I just tried to prevent you from leaving the room, but you didn't listen to me, and at some point you pulled out your sword on me and attacked me and i... i just..."

The memory of what just happened seemed to overwhelm Cub, and Scar quickly embraced him once more." Hey, hey, its okay now. I... I wouldn't do that to you."

There was a long silence. Then, Cub sniffled "... i know. I could... it wasn't you, Scar. But at the same time, it felt like it was. It looked like... i mean... It was your... your body? I don't know..."

Scars eyes watered as he thought about the implications of this, imagine what Cub must be going trough right now. He rubbed circles into his back, trying to reassure his friend and convincing him he would never do any harm to him. 

"Guess i can't write it off as sleepwalking anymore, huh.", Scar chuckled, quietly. 

"Don't think so, no.", came Cubs muffled answer. 

The two of them stayed in their hug for a while longer, with Jellie sitting between them trying to get as many pets as possible. Finally, the two ConCorp members managed to pull themselves together. Scar gave Cub a final pat on the back, and Cub wiped over his face again, then let out a harsh breath. 

"Right. We need some theories over here, help me out Scar.", he stated, beginning to pick up the scattered items from the floor.

"Aliens.", Scar immediately said. "They escaped from Area 77 and have finally taken a hold of me." 

"Hmm, could be, could be. But do you really think Doc would have let anything escape from Area 77?" Cub placed a flowerpot back on the shelf. "No, i think the better explanation is the Vex." 

"The Vex? No, they don't do... this. We've dealt with them before, it never felt like whatever this is." Scar stood up, smoothing out the remains of his blanket over his arm. Then, he faced Cub. "Besides, they wouldn't make me hurt you." 

Cub met his eye and held the gaze for a second. He didn't say anything, but Scar knew he couldn't deny that. The Vex had never been malevolent to them. They caused a lot of trouble and chaos, but it had always been in good fun. They wouldn't pull out a sword on Cub. Besides being way too violent, it also seemed way to blunt and boring for someone as cunning and mischief-loving like the Vex. Yes, the little fairies carried swords themselves, but if they would've gone trough the trouble of taking a hold of Scar, they surely would have come up with something more creative. No, there were too many things off for it to have been caused by the Vex. 

"Not the Vex, then." Scar picked up his hat from a corner of the room, plopping it down onto his head. "But we agree it's some sort of... you know, possession?" The thought made his stomach turn. 

"Seems likely. Maybe Hypnosis is also an option.", Cub stated matter-of-factly. He was still shaky, and this was clearly a way of processing it and distracting him from the idea of his best friend attacking him, but Scar was more than willing to play along with that. Cub dislodged a crossbow bolt from one of the wooden walls, looking at it sullenly. "You got anything in mind?"

Scar smiled, lopsided. Cub always knew when Scar had something he wanted to tell him. He cleared his throat, not sure what words to use. Gathering his thoughts, he tidied up his bed. 

"Well... you see, when i was passed out.... uh, possibly possessed or hypnotized. This time was... different? Because, i woke up - i supposed during it?" Both of them had stopped their cleaning, and Cub was watching Scar as the builder talked. 

"I woke up, but i was outside of the Server. Outside of the Hermitcraft world." 

Cubs brows almost met each other as they knitted in confusion, but he kept quiet as to let Scar go on.

"It was in... some sort of Void. I couldn't really move, but i was wearing gloves for some reason?" Scar tried his best to remember, mentally slapping himself for not examining the rest of the clothes he had been wearing. "My inventory was full of weird junk, arrows and rockets, and i didn't have my usual gear but some unnamed stuff. And, uh, i also saw... the Hermitcraft server itself, if i had to guess? But i couldn't reach."

"Thats.... odd.", Cub started carefully. The two of them sat down on the edge of the bed, having more or less finished cleaning up the room. Jellie wasted no time jumping up and climbing into Scars lap, purring loudly. "You sure you were outside the server...?" 

"Yes, absolutely. I could just... feel it."

Both of them fell into silence. It was very very odd for someone to be outside of the server. Once you entered the Hermitcraft world, you were there. The only way out was to be banned, or to voluntarily leave and go to another world, like the hermits usually did after a while. Other than that, there was no real explanation for anyone to be on the outside of any servers.

"Xisuma didn't throw me out, right?" Scar asked, a little fearful. 

However, Cub immediately shook his head. "No, don't think so. One, he still hasn't regained his memory, and two, why should he ban _you_ of all people? And if he did... your body was still here! If you get banned, you just leave the world with all of your... you. That can't be it. Besides, you're here now. He would have had to ban and then unban you again after a few minutes. Doesn't seem very logical to me."

"Yeah, makes sense." Scar agreed. He squished Jellies little toe-beans softly, getting lost in her cat-cuteness. She opened her eyes to squint at him, but let it happen. Jellie was a very patient cat. "What did i see then? A vision? A dream? It didn't feel like either. " 

Cub stroked his grey beard, thinking. "I don't know. I've never heard of something like that." 

Scar sighed, burying his face in Jellies soft fur. The sun was already up outdoors, and he had slept the entire night, but he still didn't feel particularly well-rested. But he didn't want to spend the entire day inside, sulking in his room either. 

"Cub, wanna have breakfast and go for a walk? I need to _do_ something..." 

Cub didn't seem too happy with the idea. 

"Just around ConCorp? And i'll stay with you the entire time? Pleeeease~?" Scar gave him the good old puppy eyes. 

As usual, Cub couldn't resist them. "Alright alright. Fine. We could work on our storage room, maybe that will get your mind off of things. Wanna have some cake with the council first?" 

"Yes! Abso-lutely!" Scar jumped up, the thought of the ConCorp board room brightening his mood immediately. "Lets go!" 

Breakfast was really fun, even if Captain Jack Sparrow jumped onto one of the cakes during the meeting, and Matthew MaCawnaughey got stuck in the cake dispenser at the ceiling. Parrots weren't the most reliable council members after all. But, neither Cub nor Scar would change them for anything in the world. Scar scaffolded up to the ceiling to rescue the stuck bird, while Cub held onto Jellie because she was eying the remaining seated parrots a bit _too_ closely. Poor bird was all ruffled and covered in cake ingredients, and he was chittering at Scar indignantly as he was placed back down on the table. 

After messing around in the ConCorp halls for a good hour, the two friends finally got out into the sun, talking as they wandered around the entire ConCorp property once, watching their villager workers get up and go to their work stations. Cub and Scar were spinning the wildest theories on what could be going on with Scar, but none of them were particularly promising or reasonable. Later in the morning, they got over to the storage room. It was still pretty much a dirt cave in the ground, so Cub started putting Quartz on the ceiling and Scar tried out various materials for the walls that were peeking trough from behind the chests. Jellie had settled down on one of the chests, alternating between sleeping and watching the two build. 

Building always eased Scars mind. He had discarded all weapons from his inventory into his enderchest, just to be safe, and Cub and he had agreed to Cub keeping his Crossbow close by in case anything... happened. And now, over building a nice wall for the room, Scar almost managed to push away any thoughts of possession and attacking his friends. Mostly. 

"Ey Cub, whaddaya think of this?" Scar stepped to the side, pointing towards the wall he had just worked on. To try it out, he had replaced the bare stone with dark oak planks, which he thought made a nice backdrop for the chests. 

Cub turned around on his dirt pillar he had made to comfortably reach his ceiling. "Hmm... Not bad, not bad at all. But maybe we should go for something more solid?"

"Hmm, like stone bricks?" 

"Yeah, that might work."

"Well, of course it depends a little on what we plan on doing with the floor.", Scar said, taking a step back to look at the whole floor of the room. It was still barren stone right now. "What would you say, if we were to- YYAU!"

Scar suddenly yelped as if he had just put his hand on a hot stovetop, flinching back. He dropped his pickaxe and clutched the front of his shirt, his face drawn into a grimace and whining escaping his throat. Cub was next to him within the second. 

" Scar?!" 

Scar flinched again as another sharp pain spike shot trough him, this time it was in his head. He dropped to his knees. Then, just as suddenly as it came, the pain faded away, leaving his chest feeling heated and raw.

"Scar...?" Cub was extremely concerned. He kneeled down in front of Scar, softly placing a hand on one of his shoulders. 

"... _Ouch_! What was that?!", Scar sputtered, gingerly patting down his chest. It hurt slightly whenever he touched it, and he drew a face.

"What happened?" 

Scar shrugged, his face confused once more. "Dunno. Another sudden random pain spike? It hasn't been that bad before, though." 

"But you're still.... you, right?" 

"... yeah, i suppose so." Scar answered, taking off his brown leather coat. He started unbuttoning his shirt to see what could have caused this pain. 

Cub was nervous, the shock of the fight earlier this morning still in his bones. "Any feelings of possession incoming?"

Scar 'hmm' - ed, shrugging again. His guess was a s good as any. He finally reached the last button of his dress-shirt and pulled it open. 

The skin of his chest was sore and reddened. It looked like he had bathed in water that was just a little too hot, or had a mild sunburn. The redness was centered in his chest and flared outwards a little. It hurt when he touched it and stung a little otherwise, but it wasn't too bad. 

"What's going on, you haven't done anything, have you?" By now, Cubs concern had mostly been replaced with confusion. "Do you want a potion for that?" 

"It's... not that bad. And, no, i haven't done anything... i was just building and suddenly.... Bam! Hurt!" 

"What? That doesn't make any sense." Cub was rummaging trough the chests, finally producing a potion. He offered it to Scar. 

"I know. Ah, thank you, Cub." In a few gulps, the regen potion was gone, and the two of them watched the sore skin get a little better. It didn't quite heal up entirely, though, but Scar could live with it. Again, it was just like a mild sunburn, more of an inconvenience than an actual injury. Cub wasn't convinced, though. 

"Are you sure it's okay? Want another potion?" 

"Nah, I'll be fine. This has happened a lot lately, though." 

"This??" 

"Well, not this exactly, but weird pains. Headaches, mostly, and my eye had been kind of hurting lately. It's gone today, though. Not sure what keeps causing it..." 

"Might be side effects of the whole possession situation?" 

"Hmm, mayyybe. I don't know, it's just super annoying. I hope it goes away soon..."

Scar closed up his shirt again, frowning. Jellie had at some point managed to sneak up to him and was rubbing against his legs, although Scar wasn't sure if she was trying to comfort him or demanding pets. Both were working , as he kneeled down to scratch her ears after he had put his coat back on.

Meanwhile, Cub had been checking his communicator, not seeming to be happy about what he was reading. 

"So, Cub. What about that floor, now?", Scar asked, tired of dealing with random pain spikes and other headaches. Instead, he was eager to get back into building. He took out his pickaxe again and ripped out a few of the stone floor blocks, replacing them with wood. It looked nice, but wasn't quite... it.

"What do you say-", Cub started, walking over to look into his enderchest. "-we make the floor out of.... diamonds. Boom." He placed down a shimmering diamond block, looking at Scar expectantly. 

It worked. Scar was immediately distracted by it. "Ohhhh, now _that_ would be something! I like it!"

The two of them argued back and forth, discussing the fact that ConCorp definitely needed a bit of bling and it hurt no one if they showed off their riches just a little bit. And by little bit, of course they meant replacing the entire floor with pure diamond blocks, and constructing the ceiling and walls of expensive quartz blocks. Now that was more like it. More like ConCorp. 

Scars own diamonds were still in the giant hourglass in the shopping district, but since Cub had more than enough to tile the floor twice it wasn't even a worry. They had a lot of fun gradually replacing the blocks in the room, and then enjoying the feeling of being, still, two of the richtest hermits on the entire server, if not even _the_ richest.

And, for just one afternoon, Scars concerns about possession and weird chest wounds were forgotten. 


	17. X gets a rather unexpected wake-up-call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i realized i actually have more chapters finished than i though, so here's a treat :D
> 
> this chapter might get a little gross in the middle, but i tried not to make it too graphic.

At Grian's base, a while earlier... 

Over at Grian's base, the Hermits had broken into chaos. 

"What do you mean you don't know where he went! Surely he wouldn't have just... left, right?"

"What i _mean_ , Mumbo, is that i _don't know where he went_! Again, look at this sign he left us with!", Grian waved his arms, exasperated. 

"Shhh!", Doc shushed the two of them, pointing to Xisuma, who was still blissfully asleep, despite the arguing that had broken out between the other three. 

Grian grumbled, pacing up and down between Iskalls bed - empty, and his bed - blankets and pillows thrown onto the floor in panic. 

Mumbo, instead, inspected the wooden sign on Iskalls bed once more taking in it's whole message. It read: 

_mum abd grain!_

_im geting my stuffska_

_llibur_

_come back!!_

If the situation had been any less serious, they would all have a good laugh over this poorly constructed sentence and later take the mick out of Iskall for calling Mumbo 'mum'. But it wasn't, and Iskall was gone. He had not been in his bed when Grian woke up, so the young man had quickly woken up Mumbo and Doc. Doc had been hard to get to wake up, but had sprung right into action as soon as he had realized what was going on. Mumbo however, was really impossible to wake up. After a few installments of 'just a few more minutes...', the other two had just resorted to pushing him out of his bed onto the floor. 

Now that he was awake, he wasn't any less worried about Iskall than the other hermits. 

Doc was currently seated on the floor, scrolling trough yesterdays chatlog of his communicator to find anything useful. He started shortly before he had found Scar near the Civil War area. 

Docm77: im gonna check on him on my way over

Docm77: im almost done anyways

MumboJumbo: Doc?

ImpulseSV: Scar, are you okay?

TangoTek: ...Scar?

Cubfan135: Scar is with me, Doc found him earlier

FalseSymmetry: Oh thank god, i was pretty worried there

ImpulseSV: Is he alright?

Cubfan135: Hard to say. We had some cake and he's asleep for now.

ImpulseSV: Hm :/

TangoTek: Tell us if we can help in any way!

Cubfan135: alright, will do.

FalseSymmetry: Something about all this isn't right...

BdoubleO100: How is Xisuma doing?

Grian: nothing's changed much

Grian: but we have been visiting most of main hermit land today!

BdoubleO100: maybe he should come over to new Hermitville then!

BdoubleO100: we were working on IDEA before he... you know :(

TangoTek: Could be worth a shot! 

ImpulseSV: Tango, i'm gonna head to bed, it's getting pretty late.

TangoTek: What! but it's only....oh.

TangoTek: right.

Stressmonster101: Good morning everyone! What a gorgeous day! :D

ZombieCleo: any news from any of you guys?

Doc sighed as he read the newest messages. He wondered if he should ask the hermits if anyone had seen Iskall. On one hand, he didn't want to worry anyone, on the other hand... what if Iskall was in trouble? The more eyes looking for him, the better, right? Doc decided to just shoot a private message to Iskall himself for now. Hopefully, he would answer.

Docm77 > Iskall85: iskall, where are you??

Docm77 > Iskall85: please come back as soon as possible. 

They hadn't found Iskalls communicator anywhere, so it was safe to assume he still had it with him. Or, at least had had it with him when he left Grians base. 

"Ugh! I'm going looking!", Grian finally exclaimed, getting more and more impatient. He equipped his elytra and practically leapt into the hole in the middle of his base. 

"Wait! Grian!", Mumbo shouted after him, leaning over the edge to stare after his friend. 

Doc threw a wary look towards Xisuma. However, the amnesiac admin didn't move. He was, somehow, still asleep. _Maybe he's catching up on all that sleep he lost over his admin duties and our shenanigans in the past years._ Doc snorted at the thought, putting away his communicator. Chat had not been helpful in the slightest, after all. He just hoped Iskall would read his messages. Doc walked over to the other part of the room to give Xisuma some quiet, dragging Mumbo with him. The redstoner was currently in the process of basically tearing out his mustache, seeing as nervous as he was. 

"Iskall is always trying to play tough,", Mumbo started, unfazed by the fact that Doc was currently dragging him at the scruff of his suit jacket collar. "He probably thought he was doing better just because his eye was repaired! He should have woken us up. Or, not just left. What does he mean with 'come back!!'? Should we come back to him? Who was he talking to?"

"Calm down, Mumbo! Jeez." Doc sat him down on the floor, far enough to the other side of the room so that his anxious rambling wouldn't wake up Xisuma. "I don't know. I texted him, maybe he'll read it."

Mumbo took out his own communicator, only to drop it the next second. He let out a sigh. "I'm worried, Doc. Iskall wasn't doing good. I doubt that he is good enough to walk around normally, even if he thinks otherwise." The mustached man looked up at him, his dark eyes filled with sorrow for his friend. Doc couldn't help but to give him a pat on his hair, still messy from the night. 

"Look, Grian already went out there looking for him. I don't know what Iskall is doing, but he should be fine, right? There's nothing much dangerous around Grians base."

"Except the ocean.", Mumbo suggested, rightfully. "The only places he can reach on foot are the circle around Grians base. You have to swim or fly to get away otherwise. Oh my word, i hope he isn't flying in his condition..."

Doc suddenly got another idea, and he didn't like it. "Oh no. What if he went into the Nether? I mean, we have the hub and everything, so he should, technically, be okay... But then again, his base is pretty far out..." 

He took out his communicator, writing in the group chat.

Docm77: grian

Docm77: where are you?

Docm77: can you check the nether?

Stressmonster101: What's going on?

Doc bit his lips. Of course that would be suspicious. But it didn't matter, finding Iskall was more important right now. 

Docm77: iskall left grians base somehow

Docm77: he was doing better but we don't know where he is

Stressmonster101: Oh no! Iskall! :(

FalseSymmetry: Can we do anything?

Docm77: just tell me if you see him

Dom77: it's probably fine...

Grian: I'm gonna check the nether, im at sahara now but he isnt there

FalseSymmetry: I'll help you, Grian.

Docm77: thanks, guys

Docm77: will keep you updated. 

Mumbo smiled at his communicator, and Doc had similar feelings. With how tight-knit their community was, there was no use hiding things from one another. Besides that, they were all friends, and of course the others would worry abut Iskall too and want to help. At this moment, Doc was grateful for it. 

"You think Grian will find him?", Mumbo asked him. 

"I mean, he must be somewhere, right?" Doc started thinking loudly. "If he really is in the nether, they should find him. He's either in the hub or in one of the tunnels, and the nether is pretty well paved out nowadays. He should be fine."

"Yeah, i hope so..."

Suddenly, there was surprised yelling and shouting from the other side of the room. Doc and Mumbo looked over, just to see Xisuma flailing his arms around in his bed, yelping confusedly. 

Both Mumbo's and Doc's hearts skipped a beat when they saw who was the cause for Xisumas shock. 

X

X had been fast asleep, but was startled awake by a harsh pain spike. He barely had time to clutch his chest in pain, his eyes going wide, as another wave of pain crashed over him. It felt like he was burning from the inside. He let out a pained yelp, struggling to free himself of his blanket to figure out what was going on. His hand hit the bed frame in his blind panic. The pain quickly faded, but it was immediately replaced by someone spawning right on top of him, in his bed. 

"Agh! What?!", X shouted as he was suddenly crushed under the weight of another person. For a few seconds, he writhed and struggled to get himself out of his predicament, and then finally managed to sit up in his bed, the person draped over his legs. It was Iskall. 

Iskall didn't move, and he was on his stomach. It smelled faintly of something being singed, and as X squinted he could se a wisp of smoke travelling up from Iskalls limp body. 

"Iskall?!"

Cold dread ran trough X, and he wasted no time grabbing Iskall by his shoulders and turning him around. Unwillingly, X sucked in his breath trough his teeth, his stomach turning at the sight. 

The swede was unconscious. His clothes were torn and burned, still smoking at some corners. His green sweater and vest were completely ripped to shreds in the front, exposing his skin. Or rather, the giant circular burn wound that was on his chest. It looked nasty. Parts were bleeding, the rest was just all blisters and raw flesh. He was breathing raggedly, obviously in pain. Soot was covering his face and arms. 

"ISKALL!"

The loud thumping of two sets of feet running over to him alarmed X of Doc and Mumbo's presence, who were next to the bed in no time. 

"Iskall!", Mumbo put his hands onto his head, then shot an almost feral look to X. "What did you do, Xisuma!"

"Whoah, hey, now-" Doc blocked Mumbo with his metal arm, since he seemed about to jump onto X in his blind panic. However, Doc seemed pretty distraught at the sight in front of him as well. 

"I-... I don't, he just respawned... i woke up and...." X stammered, a bit taken aback by Mumbo's reaction. He put his hand on his chest in empathy with Iskall - or maybe because it still felt sore? - then looked back to the hurt man. "We need to help him!"

Doc's face was unreadable as he stepped forward, only stopping to give X a look. "Help me lay him down more comfortable." 

X complied, pulling his legs free from under Iskall. They then ever so carefully shifted him to lay properly on the bed, trying their best not to disturb the wound on his chest. Doc then continued to tear off any remains of Iskalls shirt that were in his way, not bothering with scissors or anything and just ripping it right off with the claws of his cybernetic arm instead. The whole wound was now visible. It had its origin right in the middle of Iskalls chest, the less severe burns extending up to his collarbones and almost over to his navel. 

"What happened to him?!", X asked incredulously, taking in the full extent of Iskalls injury. He should not be like this. Not after respawning. 

Mumbo seemed to have come to his senses as well, as fear and realization crept into his expression. "Iskall!" He desperately moved closer, then reconsidered and took a step back. He looked... scared. X couldn't hold it against him. Iskall was one of his closest friends from what he had gathered, and to find him unconscious for the second time within days must be hard on Mumbos nerves as well. For now, the mustached man settled for grabbing Iskalls hand for comfort - whether it was his own or Iskalls, X wasn't sure. Mumbo tried his best to stay close to Iskall, and didn't even move when Doc tried to shoo him out of the way so he could give medical aid to Iskall. Doc just sighed and looked to X.

"Can you fetch me some potions and bandages?", Doc said, taking off his lab coat so his sleeves wouldn't get in the way. Not that there was much of them left, anyways. 

A short trip of X down into Grian's shulker storage, and he had found a few pieces of wool that were quickly re-purposed into bandages, and a singular potion of what he hoped was something helpful. Doc quickly got to work, cleaning out the wounds with water and dripping the potion - which turned out to be healing, actually - over it. He then wrapped the bandages around Iskalls chest tightly. With X's help, they manages to force the remaining potion down Iskalls throat without choking him. Not sure what else to do, they then laid him down onto X's pillow. The wound was nicely bandaged, and the potion seemed to have started to work, since there was at least no blood seeping trough the wool. 

Doc let out a deep sigh, leaning back. 

Mumbos still looked stricken, kneeling next to Iskalls bed. In the meantime, he had had a look at his communicator. His face was understandably pale. 

**Iskall85 was fireballed by ghast.**

"He died to a ghast."

"A ghast?", X asked.

"In the nether? The nether hub is pretty ghast-proof, that shouldn't happen. What was this guy doing, man!" Now that Doc's initial shock and worry had worn off, frustration started to set in. "I really need a vacation..."

**Iskall85 was fireballed by ghast.**

FalseSymmetry: Iskall!

ImpulseSV: does... respawn work properly again?

Grian: Iskall, where were you?

X rubbed over his chest, which still felt sore from Iskall landing on top of him. He looked over to Iskalls own bed, which laid abandoned. "Why did he respawn on my bed, and me? He did sleep in that bed last night, right?" He pointed to the bed in question. 

Doc and Mumbos view followed his finger, apparently just now coming to the same conclusion. 

"Thats... odd.", Mumbo started carefully. 

"...Yeah... He didn't sleep in your bed this morning, right X?"

"No, he didn't."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, because **I** was in that bed."

"Hmm..." Doc trailed off, looking between the beds and X and Iskall. In the silence, Mumbos communicator kept buzzing, as he was the only one to not have it set on mute. 

"Hold on, give me a minute...", he mumbled and took a moment to reply to the other hermits in chat. 

Grian: Iskall?

Grian: im coming back

FalseSymmetry: grian wait

FalseSymmetry: i think i found Iskalls stuff in the nether

Falsesymmetry: way off from the portal to his base

Grian: meet in the hub?

FalseSymmetry: yeah

ImpulseSV: Did Iskall respawn yet? Anyone seen him?

MumboJumbo: he respawned, but hes hurt

Meanwhile, X had gotten up, still bothered by the faint stinging of his chest. He raised his shirt to see that the skin was reddened, in an almost circular fashion. It was painful when he touched it gently, but otherwise was more of any inconvenience. He couldn't make any sense of it. Iskall had probably landed on him weirdly, causing him to be sore and bruised. It had been pretty abrupt, after all. X quietly smoothed out his shirt again. Doc was busy checking up on Iskall's condition. The man had not moved, but he seemed uncomfortable and in pain. Mumbo was still typing in chat, so X decided to check his communicator as well. 

TangoTek: After respawning?

TangoTek: how bad is it?

MumboJumbo: ...pretty bad

TangoTek: Oh... :(

ImpulseSV: I still have some potions

ImpulseSV: do you need some?

MumboJumbo: That would be nice actually

MumboJumbo: I'm coming over, are you in your bay?

ImpulseSV: yeah, im gonna gather what i have

MumboJumbo: i'll be there in a minute.

"I'm going to grab some healing and regen potions from Impulse, alright?", Mumbo said, getting up from his spot next to Iskall. It wasn't quite clear who he was talking to, but he seemed to adress his unconscious friend. Doc just hummed as a sign he heard him. 

Mumbo gave Iskall one last gentle pat on the head, then made his way over to the window in the wall. Rocket noises marked his departure, and X turned back to Iskall and Doc. _Why did Iskall respawn in my bed?_ , was the question that was at the front of X's mind right now. Players could make mistakes, but the mechanics of the world usually did what they were supposed to do. Unless something went wrong.

"Doc, what were you doing when I lost my memory?", X suddenly asked, catching Docs attention. 

"Hmm four days ago, right? I was near the spawn chunks, that's why i was the first to find you." 

"What were you doing there?" 

"Checking something on Tango's old iron farm. There was still a crazy amount of redstone running in there."

X fiddled with the visor of his helmet absent-mindedly, thinking. "What were the others doing?" 

"I don't know man, you gotta ask them, not me.", Doc answered, shrugging his shoulders, which in turn made a creaking sound. "... Whoops, gotta look at that some day. I think Iskall was at RUN, right? You were exploring in the End. Scar said something about flying into the wall of his factory, so i guess he was working on his new Cherry redstone factory."

X shot him a quizzical look. 

" A huge factory building, with lots of large farms and a bunch of villagers for trading, basically."

"Hmm... sounds pretty big." X didn't know why, but there was just something about all this that he couldn't quite put his finger on. All of this information was important, he sensed that, but his brain was just lacking enough memories and knowledge to connect the dots and draw any form of conclusion. 

He sighed. Would he ever get his memories back? With the theory that his memory had somehow been transferred to Iskall, it wasn’t very likely that it would just come back on his own. Looking at builds and places, hearing stories, learning what he had created in this world, none of this would bring back any memories in the first place if said memories weren't lost in his brain, but rather in someone elses. _Could admin knowledge fix this?_ He asked himself once more. It seemed more and more important every day. Not only could it fix Iskalls problems, but it seemed like it could also help him as well. 

He remembered his decision from yesterday evening when he said to himself he would have a look at it eventually. Should he? But with Iskalls situation, it seemed quite rude to just retreat and stare at a screen for hours. Despite that, X wanted someone to look over his shoulders while he was looking into the inner workings of this server, this world, and the data that was stored in each hermits personal accounts. There was a lot that could be messed up here, and who knew the consequences? Better have a second pair of eyes on that. The other hermits might not have any admin rights or much knowledge of how it worked, but they were all experienced adults who each had their own area of expertise. Surely there was someone who understood at least a little of it? 

X's eyes fell onto Doc. Of the hermits he had met so far, he seemed most likely to have a vague idea of how everything worked. Mumbo said he played around with the laws of physics themselves, so surely he must have an understanding of these laws in the first place? However, Doc had enough on his mind right now. He had constantly been taking care of X, and Iskall, and had gotten roped into everything that had happened to X so far. The man really could use a break, and now wasn't the time to bother him with yet another issue of this size. 

X propped his head up on his hand and looked at Iskall. He was, still, unconscious. He also looked a little feverish. Seeing his bandaged body made X cringe. He never wanted anything like this to happen, and he couldn't help but feel like this was, somehow, indirectly his fault. Of course he didn't make Iskall go into the nether... But if Iskall didn't have to deal with his memories, he probably wouldn't have been distracted and could have avoided being killed by a ghast. The other issue was respawn. They originally got messed up when they respawned four days ago after dying at the same time, but this respawn had been weird as well. Why did Iskall respawn in X's bed? Why did the wound that killed him not heal properly upon respawn? Being a bit sore after respawn was normal, but they weren't supposed to have actual wounds remaining. 

X sighed and sat down at one of the other beds, eating from the steaks Grian had given him the day before. 

Right now, they couldn't do much more except waiting for Mumbo to return with the potions, so Iskall could heal up properly. And then, X told himself, he would finally have a look at this admin stuff. Definitely. However scary it might seem. 


	18. 'I have a really bad feeling about this', says local mustached man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if i had an euro for every time this happened i would have two euro, which isn't very much, but its kinda weird that it happened twice

"Thank you so much, Impulse!"

"Any time again! Hope Iskall is doing better soon with these. Please tell him and the boys I said hi!"

"Yeah, will do!" 

Mumbo waved goodbye to Impulse, jumping off the fence that was surrounding the walkway outside of Impulses area.

He quickly fired a few rockets, gaining height after dropping from the fence and soon left Impulses bay. His inventory was filled with two shulker boxes, one full of health and one full of regen potions, and some additional potions to fill any empty inventory spot he still had. It was... an over the top amount of potions, to be honest, but better safe than sorry, right? And besides, it could never hurt to have some potions at hand. People seemed to get hurt easily lately.

Impulse had been really nice. He was worried about Iskall and Xisuma, as was anyone else, really, and he was glad that he could be of help. He had quickly shown Mumbo the redstone behind his potion-making room, but despite the fact that it was an impressive piece of work, and that Mumbo usually loved talking about that stuff, he couldn't really concentrate on it that well. After all, Iskall needed him.

The sun was already way past its zenith as Mumbo started his way back to Grians base. It was early afternoon, and it had been around two hours since Iskall had respawned on top of Xisuma. Mumbo had no idea what happened there. It was weird, and it wasn't good, and he was upset that it was Iskall of all people that this was happening to! He knew it wasn't quite fair, as Xisuma didn't ask for his situation either, and neither did Scar, whatever was going on with him, but Iskall! Iskall was his friend. Iskall was a good guy. Iskall had the most contagious laughter and made the best jokes, and was amazing to just hang out with. Seeing him all confused, and ill, and upset and scared, wasn't good. And now, on top of that, he was hurt. 

Mumbo grumbled to himself as he flew out of the bay, staying close to the coast line of hermit island. Using the tower bay buildings as a waypoint, he made his way over the Star Team base. He wasn't around these parts often. He smiled at the memories of the prank war and his weird double... triple... something agent role. No one had really known which side he was on, least himself. Well, maybe Grian knew, but... who knew?

Lost in his thoughts, Mumbo almost didn't notice the ground coming closer, and just barely managed to pull up, scraping his legs on the floor until he managed to get a foothold and jog a few steps to come to an halt. The charred soil of the civil war zone was splattered all over his shoes. "Whew... that was a close one...", he mumbled, nervously checking the durability of his elytra. It was only half worn down, so it should still last him until Grians base. He sighed. Mumbo was getting really tired of being so unlucky with the elytra flying. He often had trouble taking off, but that was nothing new. Sometimes he would bash into things, but then again, who didn't? And also, occasionally, he wasn't paying attention and- _Oh who am i kidding, im not that good of a flyer. Despite having built elytra courses in the past but... oh well._ While he was getting ready to lift off and continue his flight, he saw someone pacing up and down nearby.

" Oh! Hey there, Scar!" Mumbo waved over, but his hand slowed down and eventually stopped as he noticed Scar wasn't really reacting to him. 

Scar was stomping from left to right, muttering to himself, his sword in his hand dragging behind him. His hair was fairly messy, covered by his usual hat. Stray cat hair was on his brown coat, nothing unusual for him. As he noticed Mumbo, he raised his head, looking up at him. He just stared at him with a blank face for a few seconds, then visibly rolled his eyes. He clearly had noticed Mumbo, but he made no attempts to come to him, instead continuing his pacing. 

"Nice weather, huh?", Mumbo made a weak attempt at conversation. He came closer, now standing next to Scar. Scar discreetly put his diamond sword back into his inventory. Mumbo decided not to mention it. After all, there was the occasional stray mob on the hermitcraft server, and the open beach between the civil war zone and tower bay wasn't exactly a well lit area. 

Again, Scar just looked at him after his attempt to start a conversation. He seemed annoyed. 

"Anyways, uh, what are you doing all the way out here?", Mumbo asked him, fiddling once more with whatever item that was currently in his hand. It turned out to be Golden Carrots. For some reason, Scar made him nervous today. 

Their previous conversation about Scar came back into his mind. The weird incident yesterday where he had written in Galactic yesterday. Mumbo closely studied Scars face, trying to figure out... Something. The builder seemed a bit tired, but otherwise looked healthy. Other than his weird behavior, of course. 

"Where is Xisuma?", Scar simply asked him. He sounded... impatient. 

"Oh, he's still over at Grian's.", Mumbo said, glad that Scar finally answered him. "Hes okay, but he still hasn't gotten better in, you know. Im actually on my way back there. Iskall has gotten hurt, and i have some potions for him..." 

"I'm coming with you.", Scar answered, then his expression darkened slightly. "I need to talk to Xisuma."

"Well... If you... say so." Mumbo was pretty sure that the admin would be of no help currently, with his memory gone. But somehow, he didn't dare say anything. Scar... Something was off about Scar today. Mumbo couldn't quite put his fingers on it, but the way he moved, the way he talked, the way he looked at him, it was just... blatantly different. Scar was a kind and good-natured hermit. He was always up for fun and pranks, but always made sure no one got seriously harmed. He was easily impressed, and easy to excite about cool builds or events or whatever else was going on. Most importantly, he always had a minute for a friendly conversation, always a compliment about another hermits project on his lips, always a smile to go around. 

Today he was... impatient, annoyed. His pacing reminded Mumbo of someone who was looking for something, but couldn't find it. The looks he gave him reminded Mumbo of someone who would rather be alone right now, and was less than happy that someone else had made his way over. The way he walked had none of Scars fluid, swift movements, that sometimes were a bit clumsy but never harsh. No, his walking was brisk and snappy, like he was stomping around in boots way heavier than Scar's leather ones. The way he carried his shoulders and head was very un-like Scar. It threw Mumbo off. 

Not sure what to say, Mumbo simply walked a few steps over, fiddling with his rockets. Scar followed him, watching him warily. Very uncomfortable, Mumbo re-equipped his rockets and stumbled up onto a hill. "Do you have...?", Mumbo started, but a look back showed him that Scar had already taken out his rockets, making his question redundant. He was gesticulating for him to lead the way, looking more irked than Mumbo had ever seen him before. 

"Right, then.", Mumbo muttered. Not wanting to deal with this increasingly awkward interaction anymore, he jumped off the small hill to unfold his elytra and zoom off with a few rockets. Luckily, lift-off went fairly smooth this time. Noises told him Scar was following closely behind. 

The way over to Grians base seemed to stretch on forever. Of course, Mumbo was still worried about Iskall, and was slightly worried his Inventory full of potions would get lost if he crashed into anything, but the wooshing of wind under Scars wings directly behind his neck made him more uneasy than it should have. Did he need to fly this closely? What did he want from Xisuma anyways that was so important? He hadn't even asked how Iskall was doing. Providing he had read the chat, of course. Mumbo noticed he hadn't checked his own in a while, in fact he didn't have a look at it ever since he had left Grian's base to fly to Impulse's. Hopefully he hadn't missed anything important. 

Drawing closer to Grian's base, he angled himself to glide down lower. Scar zipped past him, landing fairly securely in the hole that Grian had broken into the window to carry in Xisuma. Mumbo followed closely behind. Scar was already walking towards the small group of hermits that had gathered in the room. Apparently Grian had returned in the meanwhile. Iskall was still lying on his bed, presumably still unconscious. Mumbo shuffled the shulker boxes from his inventory into his hand so he could plop them right down and give Iskall some of the potions he brought from Impulse. Scar, meanwhile, was walking very confidently towards Xisuma. 

As the two of them arived, Doc, Grian and Xisuma looked up. Xisuma gave a small wave at Mumbo and Scar, and Grian greeted them loudly. 

However, Doc tensed up at the sight of Scar, stepping into his line of sight as he quickly approached the group. The half-creeper seemingly casually took out his trident, but Mumbo could see that he was very aware of what he was doing. Something was off. Scar stopped dead in his tracks as his way was now blocked. 

"Scar.", Doc started. His voice was low, and dangerously calm. "Where's Cub?"


	19. Local man was right, it turns out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 50k! wow!
> 
> i've been on this chapter for so long, i forgot that it's supposed to be, like... important or something,,
> 
> hope you enjoy!

"You! You did something, I know it"

X watched Scar stepping closer and pointing at him, completely ignoring Doc, his question, and the trident that was raised up towards his chest. He took yet another step towards X.

"...Me?", X asked, pointing at himself. He was incredibly confused. By anything, really. Doc's tense reaction. His - justified - question as to where Cub was - X had never seen Cub, but he knew he was supposed to be with Scar. Mumbo looking nervous between the unconscious Iskall and the interaction between Doc and Scar. Scar's face - he looked pissed off. 

Looking around the room, X noticed that at least Grian seemed as lost as himself on the entire situation. 

"Yes you!", Scar continued. X flinched back since his voice was so much louder than he had expected it to be. "It's always you, isn't it! You did this to me!" He waved his arms, pointing them at his chest. 

"Scar, what's going on?", Doc growled, lifting his trident more to point directly at Scar's heart. "What did you _do_?" It was less of an question, more of a demanding of an explanation.

Mumbo was pale. "He... I... I found him like this. Cub wasn't anywhere near- I... I didn't realize... oh, gosh..."

"Look at the chat.", Doc simply said, still not leaving Scar out of his sight. 

"...Scar?" Grian's voice was more high-pitched than usual, anxious. He raised his communicator for everyone else to see. 

A single message was highlighted, dated roughly ten minutes back.

**Cubfan135 was slain by GoodTimesWithScar using ✧ Cub's Sword ✧.**

Scar shot a singular short glance over, then shrugged. "Whatever! I'm here because something's wrong." He turned back to X. "Xisuma, i need you to un- ..."

_Clang!_

The next thing X knew, Scar had pulled out a diamond sword and used it to defend himself from Doc's trident, which Doc had thrust towards him. 

Doc hissed at him. "Don't take another. _step_. closer to Xisuma."

Scar stared at him. Their weapons were still locked with each other, and neither of them wanted to budge. "Get out of my way, you fool. I just need Xisuma to... un-... uhb...."

He stammered, falling over his own words. His arms faltered, the blade of the sword slipping out from the trident pikes with a slow metallic screech. "Ubhhh-... _bloody-_..." Muttering the last words like a curse, he blinked heavily, then rubbed his eyes sluggishly with one hand. Then, he looked up again. 

Doc was still growling and hadn't relaxed in the slightest. He squinted at Scar, trying to figure out what was happening with him. 

Scar, meanwhile, was looking around with wide eyes. He looked confused, then flinched back when his eyes fell onto Doc, with the trident and sword still between them. He stumbled a few steps back in surprise. "Whoah, Doc? Why are you... why am I... what... oh no... Oh no, not again..."

Growing more frantic, he looked at the diamond sword in his hand, finally recognizing it. He hurled it to the floor, producing a loud clattering noise.

"Why... Why do i have Cub's sword??" 

Once more, the builder looked around into the faces around him. Seeing shock, anger and fear reflected in them, he finally dropped to his knees. "D-Doc, what did i do...?" 

His voice was merely a whisper.

None of the other hermits really knew what to do. They were all struck, frozen in spot. Doc's facial expressions were going on an entire journey while he slowly, slowly lowered his weapon. Finally, he picked up the sword that had been thrown onto the ground, switching his trident into his off-hand. 

"Guys.", he started, gulping heavily. All eyes were on him. "I... I don't think that was Scar who Mumbo just brought back here."

"What? What do you mean?", Grian asked, who seemed to have gotten his tongue back the first. 

"Doc, where is Cub?", Scar whispered. His voice sounded... heartbroken. 

Mumbo and X shared an uneasy look between them. 

"Doc, what do you mean when you say that wasn't Scar?", Mumbo finally asked, again. He looked like someone who already knew the answer but didn't want it to be true. X, on the other hand, was completely lost. 

"Have you ever seen Scar yell and point at someone? Attack one of us? You know, it makes sense. He passes out and wakes up somewhere else. Writes Galactic in chat suddenly. Has... has Cub's sword, with Cub nowhere around." Doc made a short pause, not wanting to speak about what they had all read in chat - except Scar himself. "Scar, are you, uh, getting possessed by someone?"

Scar had sat down on the cold floor, curling into a tight ball with his forehead resting on his knees. Besides the emotional toll all of this had on him, he also seemed physically tired. He gave a hesitant nod. "...probably... maybe. Most likely."

"Possessed?", Grian sputtered, disbelievingly. "What do you mean, possessed?"

Scar let out a deep, sad sigh. "Doc is right... i think. I'm... passing out and am in someone elses body, someone in some sort of void. Then i wake up, and i have done things, like walking to Xisuma's base or attacking Cub this morning or...", he trailed off, drawing his knees closer to his chest. Then, he looked between the present hermits in terror. "...What happened?"

Mumbo was the first to speak up. "I found you earlier. You were really annoyed and wanted to see Xisuma, so when i said i was going back here you came along. I... I didn't see Cub, but..." Mumbo's look shifted to the side, as he was unable to look Scar in the eyes. 

Scar looked around, seeking for information elsewhere, but all he got was awkward silence. "Oh no...", he whispered once more, taking out his communicator with shaking fingers. You could pinpoint the exact moment he read Cub's death message, as his face paled even more and the communicator dropped out of his hands. "I... I killed... Cub...?"

X, who couldn't bear to see him like this anymore, stood up from his spot on Iskalls bed and walked over to him. He kneeled down besides him, then carefully put an arm around Scars shaking figure.

"X!", Doc hissed, as a warning. X simply shook his head. He was pretty certain Scar was not a threat right now, despite him killing Cub and anything else that happened before. 

"Scar, look. It's gonna be fine."

"H-How?", Scar asked, sobbing. "I _killed_ Cub! My best friend! He... oh... he will never trust me again, and, and-..." The rest of whatever he wanted to say got drowned out by crying. X simply held him, wrapping his arm around him to soothe him. He technically only knew the man since a few days, and not very well at that, but who would he be not to comfort a crying friend? Scar buried his head in X's chest, clutching onto his shirt he was still wearing and practically crying his eyes out. 

Doc relaxed at the sight, feeling obviously sorry to have been so harsh on the builder. He looked at Cub's sword, then decided to take out his communicator and see what the hermits were thinking of this. Grian had gotten up to Mumbo, who had still been frozen in shock, and guided him to Iskalls bed, where the two of them started unpacking all of the potions that Mumbo had brought with him. Iskall was still asleep now, but they would make sure to give him a healing potion as soon as he woke up.

A weird silence laid over the room. 

Doc couldn't keep up with the chaos and confusion in the main hermit chat, and instead opened up a private conversation with Cub, in hopes of reaching him. Cub's first answer had been a 'i'm okay' in the group chat, dated 7 minutes after his death message, but Doc wanted to hear from him personally.

Docm77 > Cubfan135: cub? you there?

Cubfan135 > Docm77: yeah, im here

Docm77 > Cubfan135: how are you?

Cubfan135 > Docm77: ...okay, arguably.

Docm77 > Cubfan135: any problems with respawn?

Cubfan135 > Docm77: just the ususal bruises, they were gone fairly quick

Cubfan135 > Docm77: nothing out of the ordinary

Cubfan135 > Docm77: ...except emotionally, of course

Docm77 > Cubfan135: do you want to come over? scar is here

Cubfan135 > Docm77: scar? or...

Cubfan135 > Docm77: ...someone else

Cubfan135 > Docm77: this might sound weird, but i think scar is getting possessed

Docm77 > Cubfan135: it doesnt sound that weird.

Docm77 > Cubfan135: i think so too. this isnt like him

Cubfan135 > Docm77: really?

Cubfan135 > Docm77: any ideas?

Docm77 > Cubfan135: a few, but i need more info.

Docm77 > Cubfan135: can you come to grians?

Cubfan135 > Docm77: ...

Cubfan135 > Docm77: give me a few more minutes, then i'll be good to go.

It took Scar quite some while to calm down. After he stopped crying, all of the present and conscious hermits had gathered around X's - now Iskalls - bed, waiting for the swede to wake up and making a plan of action. Grian had provided them with chairs made of stairs and signs, which were positioned in a circle around the bed. It wasn't exactly a conference table, but who said meetings couldn't be held around the sleeping body of an injured friend?

X sat next to Scar, having his arm around his shoulder and occasionally rubbing his back to comfort him. At the foot of the bed was Doc, who had a grim expression. He had been very quiet the whole time. Grian and Mumbo at on the other end of the bed, with Mumbo next to Iskall's head. He was constantly checking on him to wake up. Iskall's chest was still wrapped tightly in white bandages, but at least he seemed to be sleeping peacefully. X absent-mindedly touched his own chest. He was still a little sore, and he still wasn't quite sure why. It wasn't important right now, though. Scar being possessed was the much bigger issue here.

After they had set down, first of all Doc had told them that Cub had respawned just fine, and would join them later on. Scar seemed relieved, but also scared at the idea of looking Cub in the eyes so soon after he had killed him. Well, it hadn't been _him_ that killed Cub, but he still felt guilty. Scar then started carefully telling them the events of the morning as far as he could remember. Him going to sleep, waking up in the void. Seeing the Hermitcraft server. Hands that were not his own, wearing gloves he didn't have.

At this point in the story, X couldn't help but to look at his own gloved hands. He had not questioned it yet, but most of the other hermits were not wearing gloves. Was this something weird? Did they have a purpose? Was he just wearing them because he liked them? Once more, he was reminded of how much he didn't know about himself. He had almost forgotten it over the past days and hours, with the whole thing around Iskall and Scar, but the fact that he had lost his memories was still very much a thing. _Well, i mean, we're pretty sure my memories are with Iskall now, but that doesn't really help me either_., he thought. X couldn't help but wonder if all of the other weird things that were happening were connected to this. Weird respawn, posession, random pain and injuries... Nothing of this were things that normally happened. 

Scar had gotten to the point in his story where he had woken up and found out he had attacked Cub while he was unconscious. The others were shocked, but mentioned for him to go on. The rest of his day had been pretty normal - cleaning up his room, breakfast with Cub, then they got to work on the storage room. X perked up when Scar talked about a sudden spike of pain in his chest and having irritated skin there, but hesitated to interrupt him. Scar then got onto the part where he and Cub left to take a walk around the ConCorp area. Apparently that was when Scar passed out the second time, and he only woke up back here at Grian's base. 

Doc had written down everything in his communicator, and double-checked it with the hermit group chat. "Alright, so it's been 25 minutes between you... killing Cub, and Mumbo bringing you here, so you were out for at least that long. Probably a bit longer."

Scar flinched at the mention of Cub, but nodded bravely. 

"So, whatever had been possessing him was in control of his actions for that long?", Grian asked. 

Scar nodded again. "I think it's getting longer every time. When it happened this morning, Cub and i guessed that it must have been around ten minutes already, so this is... no surprise. But, still..."

"Scar, you said you were wearing gloves earlier?", X asked him, still not sure how to feel about that. 

"Yeah. They were a bit similar to your's, actually." Scar examined X's gloved hand that was still holding on to his shoulder, then looked up into his eyes nervously. "You didn't do anything, did you?"

X shook his head. "Of course not! Also, I... still haven't looked at the admin controls. I wanted to, to help Iskall, but maybe that isn't such a good idea after all."

Doc followed their conversation with interest, then cleared his throat. "Scar, when you were passed out just earlier, were you in the... in the void outside of the server again?"

"Y-Yeah. It felt like an eternity..."

"Can you describe what you were wearing and seeing? As much details as you remember. I think i have a suspicion, and i would like to confirm it..."

Grian, Mumbo and X perked up, looking at Doc. He didn't say anything else, though, and instead motioned Scar to go on.

"Well...", Scar started, staring at the floor. His fingers were nervously fiddling with the hem of his leather coat. "As said, i was wearing gloves. Black ones, with red details and armor... plates? on it. My hands were a bit smaller than usual. I was wearing diamond gear and an elytra, but the clothes i had on were also like armor. They were all red and black. And i had really heavy boots under my diamond shoes as well."

Doc squinted suspiciously, folding his fingers in front of his face and leaning forward with his elbows propped on his knees. "Did you have anything on your head?"

"I... don't know, i think so? I couldn't move my hands and arms very much. It's like the void... held me? It was like moving trough syrup."

"Hmm.", Doc hummed, leaning back again. 

"What do you think, Doc?", Grian asked him. 

"Look, it's pretty obvious who has been possessing Scar now." Doc had a slight smirk on his face, reveling in the attention of the others and the confidence of having solved the case. 

"It is?" Mumbo was confused. 

"Scar, i think you were in the body of whoever was in your body.", Doc began. 

Scar nodded, slowly. "That... seems likely, yeah. I'm pretty sure i wasn't having a dream." 

"Okay guys, listen." Doc said, clapping his hands together. It made a sound that could only be described as like hitting a metal pan with your bare hand. "I think i figured it out." 

Everyones attention was on him as he started to explain his theory. "We're looking for someone who is outside the server, unable to access it. That sounds like someone who is banned to me." He made a meaningful pause, looking everyone in the eyes. He was met with hesitant nods."The person is wearing red and black, and has gloves similar to Xisuma."

Mumbo was the first one to go 'ooooh' as he came to a realization. 

"The person also writes in Galactic, tries to find their way to Xisuma, and was trying to accuse him of something. According to Scar, they also called X a 'scumbag'." 

Scar his his head with his palm. "Of course! It's so obvious now that you put it like that..." 

"The person is willing to kill other hermits, and no one really knows what his deal is.", Doc concluded. "That can only be one person we know..."

Grian, Mumbo, Scar and Doc all simultaneously looked to X, who still had no idea who they were talking about and awkwardly straightened his back at the sudden attention he was getting. 

"...What? Why... why are you looking at me?"

"Evil Xisuma!", Grian exclaimed, triumphantly. 

"Evil _what_??" X was more than shocked. 

"Evil Xisuma. It can only be him!", Mumbo agreed. 

"But... i thought you said that ** _I_** was Xisuma!" 

"Well, yes, but-..."

"I'm not evil!? Or wait, am I??", X cried out. He was beyond lost. _Evil Xisuma?_ After he had just learned his own name and the tiniest bits and pieces of his identity, what was this supposed to mean? 

The others seemed to have realized their mistake. "Ah. Right.", Doc made a resigned face. "Memories."

"Well, Evil Xisuma is... uh... he is kind of, an evil version of you?", Mumbo made an attempt to explain. 

"There's an evil version of me?? What does he do?" 

"Well, he is.... uh.... actually, what _does_ he do?" Mumbo scratched his head, not sure how to explain. 

"Doesn't he usually try to destroy the server?", Grian asked. He only knew of the one time Evil Xisuma had been on the season six server, and then he had been playing the tag game with them and tagged Jevin. 

"I mean, he did try to, but wasn't he friends with Xisuma at the end of last season?" Mumbo scratched his head. 

"Wait, wait, can we start over at the part where there's an evil version of me?", Xisuma said exasperated, throwing his hands up. He couldn't quite understand the whole situation, at all. How could they all be so casual about someone evil with his own name existing?! "Who is Evil Xisuma?!"

Doc raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Alright, alright, calm down. Evil Xisuma is... well, he just showed up one day. None of us really know where he comes from. He always says he hates the Hermitcraft server and claims that he wants to destroy it. However, that never quite works out for him for some reason. One time he summoned some so-called 'withermen' as his minions, but they ended up turning against him. Then in the last world, he had this whole elaborate plan to get rid of you, but you beat him at his own game and he just kinda... gave up after that. He hang around for a while, but when we came into this sixth world, he started showing up again. He was always bothering you, so i think the last thing that happened was that you banned him?"

"He's a bit of a nuisance, but he also kind of listens to you sometimes. I think somewhere in him, he actually respects you.", Scar said. A very small smile had crept back onto his face at the thought. 

"So, to recap, there's an evil doppelganger of me, hes been around for quite a while and no one does anything, and none of you know where he originally comes from? Or what his relation to me is? And he's also possessing Scar?"

"You've grown pretty close with him in season five, after his whole evil plot failed, i think.", Mumbo said, only referring to the least of Xisuma's concerns. 

"Yeah, you were a little like... like brothers, maybe, who only see each other twice a year and get on each others nerves.", Scar gave his own assessment.

"He killed Cub!" X gesticulated towards Scar, upset. "He's _possessing_ Scar!"

"Okay, that's fair.", Doc threw in. "But Cub respawned. I don't think Evil Xisuma knows that something weird is going on with you, or Scar or Iskall or respawn. Or your memories. And no, i don't know how he is possessing Scar, or why he chose him. But, i think, you should talk to him, X."

X sighed, sitting back down onto his chair. This whole discussion was giving him a headache. "What would i even tell him...?" 

Honestly, he had no idea how to cope with this situation. _Evil_ Xisuma?

No one was really sure what to say. 

"What do we do now, then?", Grian asked. "Do we just wait until he possesses Scar again or...? Scar, can you leave him into your mind so him and X can talk for a bit?"

"What? No, i don't think that's how it works...", Scar muttered. The thought of being possessed again after what just happened made him shudder. "I would prefer not to..."

"Do you think Evil Xisuma is behind this whole... situation?" Mumbo pointed broadly trough the room, meaning Iskall on the bed, Xisuma and Scar. 

"I don't know." Doc scratched his chin. "He's never done something like this, messing with the hermits personal accounts. Or, whatever went wrong with you three. He also usually doesn't really get involved with any of us, except Xisuma? But i wouldn't put it past him, either. I'm... i'm not sure he has the knowledge to do things like that? But then again, he is sort of a version of X..." his musings turned into incomprehensible muttering as he got lost in his thoughts. 

"He doesn't have admin rights, though, does he?", Scar asked, suddenly very concerned. 

"I don't think he would.", Grian answered while looking over to X. "Besides, he's banned anyways. I don't really get how it works, but he shouldn't be able to access the code of the server or any of us."

Mumbo sighed. "That's the problem, none of us really know how it works..."

The others, once more, gave a sad look to X. He was getting sick of it, and turned his head away. Why did he have to end up like this?

Scar roughly wrapped his arm around X's shoulder before he could spiral further down his thoughts. "Well, then we just have to make sure Xisuma gets his memory back as soon as possible, right?"

"Yeah... but how?", Doc asked, looking over to Iskall. The others followed his gaze. 

"Ugh, why is everything so complicated!" Grian was fed up with the situation as well. 

Mumbo agreed. "Seems like we just hit dead ends every way we look..."

X stood up. "I'm really sorry, peeps. This is... I feel bad for not being able to help me, and you! If i still had my memories, this probably would've been solved _ages_ ago! Jeez."

The others stared at him wide-eyed, then started to smile.

"I don't think we need to lose hope yet, your memory isn't really gone, right? Besides, you still sound like the Xisuma i know." Mumbo gave him a warm smile.

"Are you blaming yourself for _losing your memories_? Remember how often you died that day? Unbelievable."

Doc had a big grin on his face as well. "Grian is right, that's not on you. It's unfortunate that you lost your memories, but we'll deal with it. Hermit-style."

"Yeah, we'll help you all out, you get your brain back in no time, and it's gunna be ama-zing!", Scar exclaimed, giving X another good pat on the back. 

X smiled. His eyes felt a little teary, as well. He couldn't even get a simple 'thanks' out of his throat in fear of it failing on him, full of emotions. Good ones, though.

Their little moment was interrupted by the faint whooshing of Grian's nether portal on the ground floor. 

"...Scar...?", someone yelled up trough the base, sounding hesitant.

Scars smile dropped, and he went pale. "O-Oh no, it's Cub, quick, i gotta hide... I can't..."

Panicked, he attempted to hide behind X's tall figure, but the unknowing admin simply took a step to the side and grabbed Scar's shoulders, pushing him towards the hole that ran trough Grian's base.

"If you wanna help me, talk top your friend first.", he ordered him, being as gentle and as determined as he could. It seemed to work. Scar gulped and trembled a little, but he stood his ground as rocket sounds told them the guest was coming up to the fourth floor. 

Cub finally landed in front of the group. He looked... normal. A bit distraught, maybe, but there were no wounds or anything. He looked fine, his elytra folding behind him, and a little grey tabby cat peeking out of the front of his labcoat. 

"Scar." He looked at his friend, his emotions hidden behind his big beard. 

Scar looked back at him, tears forming in his eyes. It was clear that he was struggling for words, unable to say anything. 

A moment of tense silence laid over the room, the two ConCorp members just staring at each other. No one in the room dared to breathe. 

Then, finally, Cub hastily closed the distance between them with a few long strides, then crushed him into a tight embrace.

"Oh, Scar! I'm so glad that you're okay..."


	20. X and the others take a break and go for a nice, uneventful walk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was brought to you by: season 6 world download
> 
> hope you like long chapters, because mine keep getting longer and longer!

The next morning, they all felt a little better.

Cub and Scar had talked it out, with both of them apologizing and making sure the other one was fine all over the place. Apparently possessed Scar - Evil X? - had stolen Cub's sword when he had been inattentive, and promptly killed him with it so he would be free to roam the server alone. No one was quite sure why he ended up in the Civil War area, of all places. The others also introduced their Evil Xisuma theory to Cub, and he largely agreed with it. 

Calming down the other hermits had been way harder. After seeing Cub's death message everyone had been freaking out, even after Cub had texted that he was ok. Him and Doc had taken most of the remaining evening to explain everything to the other hermits, and clear them up about everyones health situation. They even explained their Evil Xisuma theory, although they didn't go into the detail in the group chat. Maybe they would have a meeting later today, but at least the others now knew what was going on. The general consensus had been to be careful around Scar, and to bring him back to Doc, Xisuma and the others if anyone found him anywhere. Scar had agreed to this, although he was understandably upset that such precautions were necessary. 

Scar had also agreed to stick with Xisuma for now. Their only lead was to let Xisuma talk to his evil counterpart, and since they had no idea when he would be possessing Scar again, he would just have to hang out until anything happened. It kind of sucked as a situation, but on the other hand, everyone was also glad that they could keep an eye on Scar this way. 

After discussing everything at length, the group at Grian's base noticed it was already well into the night, and they decided to sleep first and sort things out in the morning. Cub wanted to stay over, despite him still being a little wary of Scar. Grian crafted up yet another two beds, and made a joke about how eventually the whole server would be having a sleepover at his base. Doc stayed up half the night keeping watch, just in case Evil Xisuma tried anything funny while Scar was asleep, and took shifts with Grian, since the two were currently the most emotionally stable and least tired of the bunch. 

Scar was dead exhausted from the day before, and he fell asleep as soon as he hit his pillows. Xisuma was pretty tired as well, since he still had mild headaches the entire time, and Iskall was still asleep anyways. At least he had gotten a bit of color back into his face. Cub and Mumbo went to bed, worn out from worrying about their friends, and so Grian and Doc shared the night watch. However, it turned out to be a pretty quiet night, and the next morning they were stunned to see nothing else bad had happened. 

Being well-rested did a lot to lift the mood, though, even when you're in a joint memory loss/possession/being burnt to death situation.

So now with a bit of an brighter look on things, they decided to have breakfast together, and then to wait and spend the day until Evil X showed up again. They left Iskall in his bed, for now, and instead had food on a table of shulker boxes on the lowest floor of Grians base.

"So, whats everyones plans for today?", Grian mumbled, mouth full of cake. Cub had provided some, and they all had a slice in their hands. 

"I'm staying with Iskall, until he wakes up.", Mumbo announced. No surprise there. 

Doc tilted his head, thinking. "Should i stay as well? Or maybe i can-"

He was interrupted by noises picking up in volume. Grian's nether portal behind them was acting up, announcing someone about to come trough from the hellish dimension. 

The present hermits all looked up, and, sure enough, two men soon appeared in the middle of the purple swirls. X watched them as they stepped out of the large obsidian frame one after the other. The first one had brown, spiky hair, and was wearing dark blue pants and a long-sleeved white shirt. The second person had a standard cyan shirt with jeans, but he also had _huge_ eyes that scoured the room until they fell onto X.

"Shishwamy!!"

"Xisuma!"

The new guests came running over to X, and he soon found himself toppled to the floor in a tight hug from each of them. 

"Whoah, hey..."

"Xisuma! You're awake now!", the spiky-haired man yelled. He had managed to peel himself away from X and now held him by his shoulders, his face showing pure joy. The other man was still clinging to X like his life depended on it. 

"Have been for a while, but yeah, thanks!", X replied, not quite sure how to answer that.

"Shishwamy-void! We missed you so, so much.", the wide-eyed man explained, looking up to X. His voice was much softer than the spiky-haired mans.

"Yeah! We came over here, just after we heard you lost your memory and whatnot! But you were still asleep, so we couldn't talk to you. Well i mean we could, but you wouldn't answer, so we came back now!"

"Uh, thank you... uh...?" X managed to pry both of them off of him, setting down the wide-eyed man in front of him. 

"Keralis! Bdubs! Nice to see you guys!", Doc finally greeted them, patting each of them on the shoulder. X gratefully made note of their names, glad he didn't have to go trough the embarassment of asking for them now. 

"What are you guys doing here?", Grian asked, finishing his food. 

X quickly ate the rest of his steak as well. The half-stack Grian had given him was almost empty.

"We want to help Shishwamy! Poor guy must be all lost, alone without us...", the man named Keralis explained, staring at X.

"Yeah, we want to take you to IDEA! Maybe that'll bring your memories back!"

X looked wild-eyed between Bdubs and Keralis. 

Cub sensed his confusion, and jumped in. "IDEA was your latest project with those two, before you... you know, lost your memory. It's a large store of sorts, you were working on it all he time lately!"

X gave him a grateful nod. 

"Do you wanna go?", Scar asked him, Cake in both hands. 

X hesitated for a second. To be frank, yes he really wanted to go. He was getting sick of being cooped up in Grians base all the time, even though him and Mumbo had taken him on tours throughout the server in the past days. But he felt like it would do him good to go out and see new things, and to talk to new people. Besides that, Grian's base was just currently getting a little too crowded for his tastes with the addition of Scar and Cub. 

"Yeah, I think i wanna come along.", he finally agreed. "I need to stretch my legs a little bit."

Keralis and Bdubs beamed at him. 

"Great! Let's go immediately!", Bdubs began, turning on his heels and excitedly hopping over back to the portal. 

X turned to Doc, Grian and Mumbo, head tilted in question. "Is it ok if i go?"

"Pff, you're an adult, you can do what you want, right?", Grian shrugged. 

Doc frowned a little, but agreed. "Yeah man, go for it. Just try not to get killed, we don't know how respawn works at the minute. But, you know, sitting around here won't do you any good, right man?"

"I'm gonna come along, too." Scar stood up from his seat, determined. "I don't want to bother you guys more than necessary, and if... if Evil X possesses me again, i'm just a danger to all of you." He shared a look with Grian, Mumbo and Doc, leaving no room for argument. He didn't look Cub in the eyes, though. 

"I'm gonna stay here with Mumbo to watch Iskall, in case he wakes up." Grian announced, smacking his fellow architech on the shoulder. Mumbo had clearly been spaced out and clearly not expecting this, so he yelped and stumbled a few steps forward, then looked around confused. 

"I'll.... I'll stay here as well. Doc and me wanna work on some theories about respawn, and maybe we can figure out a way for Xisuma to look at the admin panels without risk of breaking anything.", Cub said. His eyes shifted around nervously, then finally fell onto Scar. "Be careful, Scar, alright?"

Scar looked at him tensely, then his expression softened. "...I will be. Look, i left all my weapons here with you, right? So no cause to worry."

Cub nodded, giving him a smile that seemed a little sad. Then, he remembered something. "Oh, you should also take this!" He reached into his labcoat and pulled out an entire cat that had been napping on his chest. "Jellie. I think she sensed it when you were posessed, so... maybe that helps. And I think having her would help you, as well."

"Can't argue with that!" Scar smiled brightly as he accepted the grey cat into his arms. She yawned once, then purred at her owner as Scar petted her head. He was looking at her fondly, making X wonder if she would be fine with someone so dangerous as Evil Xisuma on the loose. 

Cub seemed to have the same thought. "Don't worry, Jellie can fend for herself."

X just nodded and watched Jellie climb up onto Scar's shoulder, where she laid down in a comfortable perch. It looked very natural, and X assumed that both of them were used to this. 

"Jellie is such a good girl, isn't she!", Keralis exclaimed, reaching out to pet Jellie under her chin. She sniffed his hand a little displeased, but then let herself be pet.

"Alright, lets get going then!", Bdubs was undoubtedly excited to go onto an adventure. 

"Yes!", X agreed. 

After waving the remaining hermits goodbye, Scar and X followed Keralis and Bdubs into the large nether portal in Grians base.

What was on the other side absolutely took X's breath away. 

They were in a huge, _huge_ room, the walls and ceiling made of pitch black concrete that made them seem even larger and more otherworldly than they already were. The room was so large that the opposing wall disappeared into a haze in the distance. The floor was the most remarkable thing, though. They were walking on a thick glass layer, but underneath that, X could make out green and blue blocks, broken up with grey stone and sand. It was forming shapes and lines, and he soon understood that it was a giant map, presumably of the overworld of the server. 

_Thats genius! This is so cool_! 

The air was warm, and X was reminded that they were travelling trough another dimension, so he quickly adjusted the corresponding settings on his helmet. 

He followed Keralis and Bdubs, only half-heartedly listening to their conversation as they got Scar to tell them everything about the situation and Evil Xisuma he knew. Instead, X was marvelling at the wonders of the hermits nether hub. 

They had walked into the middle of the giant map room, where they all had taken out their elytra and rocketed up trough the ceiling. From the ledge they were standing on, four tunnels branched off, labelled with N, E, S, W for the corresponding directions. They took the east tunnel, with Keralis explaining that they would be taking the boat instead of the elytra because it was nicer and much less dangerous. So, X climbed into the boat behind Bdubs, and Scar joined Keralis, and they were scooting off over the icy road that the hermits had constructed. 

The tunnel itself was really nice, mostly made of stripped wood, with many windows and pillars for decoration. It got narrower and the ceiling got lower the farther they came along. Off the sides of the tunnel, X could see smaller branches going off, as well as a few Nether portals directly along the walls. The Nether was well laid out, it had a really good infrastructure. Scar mentioned that X himself was involved in the planning and building of most of it. Apparently it had also mostly been his idea to build the large central map room, which amazed X once again. The further they came along, the less tunnels branched off. Finally, they made a sharp turn, zoomed past a few green blocks X caught in the corner of his eyes, and finally reached the end of the tunnel. They came to an halt and all awkwardly climbed out of the boats, stretching their arms and legs. 

"Here we go!", Bdubs exclaimed, pointing to the Nether portal in question as he collected the boats. X nodded and stepped into the portal. Familiar whooshing encompassed him, and before he knew it, he stood in the top room of a decently sized wooden tower. 

He took a step to reach the edge of the window to look down - and gasped. 

Below him, a small colorful city unraveled itself, but above him - that was were his eyes immediately went. 

Directly across from where he could look out of the tower, there was a wooden house. When X looked up the building, he realized it looked more like several small houses that were stacked on top of each other, towering up higher and higher in a seemingly gravity-defying fashion. He stepped as close to the edge as he could, even crouching as to not fall down, just to look up and see the tip of the building. It vanished into the clouds and due to the distance he was barely able to make out anything, but he did see the underside of some sort of red creature. A dragon, maybe? However, X was immediately distracted by everything else going on, since the dragon was somehow not the craziest thing in his sight. Laser beams made of glass were travelling from the rustic building to the others. In the far back, there was a build which mostly consisted of glass, housing an aquarium and a smaller house, floating. On top of the aquarium was a modern skyscraper. On top of that, a small moon. And, way up, a statue of a dabbing penguin, for some reason.

X snorted amused, craning his neck even more to see more of the buildings that were rising to the sky. Between them, there was a thin, ragged pole, with what seemed like a white flag at the top.

"Don't forget the other side.", Scar mentioned off-handedly besides him, smiling at his wonder.

Curiously, X walked over to the other side of the portal, looking out over the city on that side. To his left, he saw a spiraling trail of white glass, ending in a small burst of flames or sparks. More rustic-styled buildings rose from the ground. And, behind all of them, yet another monstrous build towered above the city. Bamboo was growing from it's bottom, complimenting the large plant stalks that someone had build from the ground up. They were holding a small island with a modern building on it, but the vines extended even higher than that. Eventually, a head was growing out of the plant, fully decked out with a wizard hat, glasses on twop stalked eyes, and a wand in a 'hand' made of yet another vine. A laser was firing towards the other buildings. Above the giant purple wizard hat, clouds were formed out of yet more glass, shooting lightning. And even higher up, X could just about make out the tips of two stone towers, and a cannon being fired. 

"Breathtaking, isn't it?", Keralis asked him with a smile, stepping besides him. 

X had no words, really. "This is..." he gesticulated towards whatever this was wildly. "...Jeez. This is amazing!"

Scar let out a laugh besides him. "Wait till you hear the full story!"

The small group of four gently glided down from the tower of their elytra. They decided to take the scenic route instead of just flying straight over to IDEA, so they landed in the city below. From down here, the towers looked even more impressive. Glass was glistening in the sun, bamboo sprouted up towards the sky, and the shadows of the buildings drew bizarre shapes on their faces as they walked below. Apparently on the tower with the plant-stem, a little figure of Scar was sitting right on top. X couldn't help but gawk upwards as Scar told him the whole story of the build-off between him and the architech boys. Thank god the helmet covered his mouth, or X probably would've looked quite stupid. 

They slowly made their way trough the village, squeezing past the rustic house and climbing up a hill to the left of it. In front of them was a large, but flat glass building with a bunch of villagers in them. The four hermits ignored them, walked over the glass and made their way onto the wall that was encircling the entire village. 

In front of the group was a valley with some wheat fields, and a large wooden mansion or maybe a church on the hill behind it. When X looked slightly to the right, he saw the corners of a large, blue building peeking out from over the trees in the distance.

"Oh, there we are!", Keralis exclaimed, excitedly pointing towards the building that came up. 

Apparently that was their destination, as they glided down the village walls gently and walked along a small rail track until they reached the immediate vicinity of the blue building. 

They ended up on a nice array of walkways, with carefully cut lawns in between them. The building itself was mostly made of blue wool with yellow accents, although a smaller wing in the back was made of yellow wool with blue details instead. It was labelled IDEA in big, bold letters on the side of the building. It was really large, as well. Not quite as big as Sahara, but it was still a very massive build. 

"Is this what i have been working on?", X asked, in awe. 

"Yup!", Bdubs beamed. "You did most of the exterior, actually. Took you days! Then Keralis and me did some example rooms on the inside!"

"Oh, we should go there! I want you to see them again for the first time!" Once more, X was dragged around by Keralis. 

He looked at Scar, a bit helpless. 

Scar just smiled and shrugged, then followed them. "Haven't seen much of IDEA either, so I'm happy to take a tour."

X nodded, and quickly ate his last two steaks for strength, then followed Bdubs and Keralis inside. 

Their tour lead them trough the entire building. Staircases, Water elevators, long hallways, beautifully constructed and decorated example rooms. Bdubs explained as much as he could about them, going into great detail about almost every individual item he placed and why the customers would love it. The upper level wasn't quite finished yet, but there was also an office/meeting room to visit. They then travelled down into the warehouse, where Keralis tried his best to explain the redstone system X had apparently set up. 

They spent the whole morning and a good part of the afternoon going trough the store. Finally, they ended up in the gift shop, where IDEA was selling various decorative blocks, dyes, and what was apparently the remnants of X's wool shop. 

To be quite honest, X was getting a little exhausted. Keralis and Bdubs were nice to him, and cared for him, but after hearing them talk about idea the entire day he just needed a bit of a break. He glanced at Scar. The builder had not been showing any signs of aggressiveness or... well, possession the entire time, and mostly just followed them. He occasionally took part in the conversation or made a little joke or comment, but he mostly kept quiet. X couldn't blame him. Scar probably had a lot on his mind after the day he had yesterday. He watched him as the smaller man pet Jellie for a while. Keralis was meanwhile getting into detail about the armor stands in the middle of the shop, posed by Cleo, apparently. 

"Guys, i think i need to catch some fresh air for a moment. Can we take a little break?", X softly interrupted him. He was feeling a little overwhelmed with the entire situation right now. 

"Of course, Shishwamy! I didn't mean to talk that much about IDEA, I'm really sorry.", Keralis said as he realized how tired X looked. 

"No no, no worries! I just want a bit air, maybe take a little walk." It was true. After being in Grians base for so long with so many other people, and now traversing the endless IDEA hallways, he just needed a bit of sunlight. 

"Oh theres a beautiful forest right outside the building! Why don't we go there!" Bdubs suggested. 

"I'll come along, too.", Scar agreed, nodding at X.

Keralis, however, shook his head, wide-eyed. "No no no. No way. I'm not going there again! Theres Pillagers, and skeletons, and creepers, and who knows what else!"

"Alright then, you stay here, Keralis, and we go for a little walk! This is nice!" Bdubs spread his arms invitingly, moving to the exit. 

"Yeah, we'll be careful!", X ensured Keralis, who just nodded in reply. 

The three men and one cat left the IDEA building, turning west towards the quaint, dim spruce forest. It looked quite mysterious. They travelled trough the dense foliage, soon leaving the backside of IDEA behind, weird redstone and sheep kennels and all. They kept walking, delving further into the forest. Bdubs was going ahead, an axe in his hands, on the lookout for any mobs that might cross their paths. They made a wide arc around a large tower. X wasn't really sure why, but he saw a strange, grey-skinned villager over near the tower.

"What's that?", he asked, intrigued by the mob's crossbow. 

"The pillagers?", Bdubs asked, looking over to the mob himself. It was joined by a few other's of its kind. "Oh theyre a real pain in the butt. Keep spawning around here, bothering us all the time." He took out an bow, then decided against it. "Should be fine as longs as they don't see us."

X nodded, and the three of them kept walking. They walked further and further between the spruce trees, some smaller, some larger. Their journey led them up and down hills. It was quite nice, X thought. The sun was shining trough the leaves of the trees, painting spots onto the floor. Fern was waving softly in the light breeze. It was quiet, calm. 

Scar seemed to have similar thoughts, as he took deep breaths and turned his face towards the sun, eyes closed calmly. 

There were spots beneath the trees where the sun didn't reach, and so they came across the occasional skeleton or zombie. Bdubs was walking ahead, though, and he was throwing himself at every mob he saw, yelling and calling them stupid for interrupting them on this nice walk. This gave Scar the chance to have a word with X.

"Hey X, how are you feeling?", he asked him, catching up next to the man in the helmet. 

X gave him a curious look. "I'm fine, but what about you?"

"Are you, though?"

X drew a sad face behind his visor. Scar was really asking what he had been trying to avoid. "Well... I mean, i lost my memory, have a constant headache, and keep getting random pains when i don't even have an injury every now and then. Also, everyone probably expect that i do the admin stuff, but i just don't know how. To be honest, i'm not really sure how im feeling? Could be better, i'd reckon."

"Aw, X, no one is going to deman-" Scar interrupted himself to do a double take on X, staring at him slightly surprised. "Wait, you're getting random pains? Like i got the weird burn... thing on my chest yesterday?"

"Yes, actually, that's... now hold on a second." X stopped, looking at Scar. "Did your... well, lets call it a burn mark, start in the middle of your chest and went outwards? And you had kind of a random pain spike, and then it faded?"

"Yeah, how do you know that? That's exactly how it was. It was all better this morning, though. Barely see anything anymore."

"I know that because mine was identical! And, Scar, do you know who else has a burn of his chest area?"

Scar stared at him for another second, then his eyes went even wider. 

"Iskall!", both of them exclaimed, suddenly excited. 

"So wait, what does that mean? Iskall got burned and killed, and is still injured after respawn? And we were feeling it, too?" Scar was confused. The two of them started walking again, not really paying attention to where they were going in the forest. 

X shrugged, then suddenly clapped his hands as he remembered something. "Oh wait, you know how your eye was all red and itchy a few days ago? I had that too. At the time, i didn't think any thing of it."

"You too? That's so weird.", Scar said with a nervous chuckle. "It hasn't been like that in a few days though. It went away when... when..."

"When Iskall's eye was repaired?" X had a triumphant smile on his lips. 

"Ooooh!" Scar slapped his forehead. "That makes so much sense!"

"Really? Does it? We still don't know why that is happening."

"Yeah, but, this is a lead! We are both having, like... less severe versions of Iskall's injuries!"

X thought back a few days, trying to come up with anything else that didn't make sense. "The only other injury i had were the bruises from when i... presumably, lost my memory. I don't know what happened, though. It must have been right when i died?"

Scar went silent. "Were they... like, spreading over your left side? Over the ribs and hip?"

Startled, X stopped again, looking at him. "Yeah! What, don't tell me you-"

"Those were from when i bashed into the Cherry redstone factory and died, when this all began. It hurt pretty badly, and the bruises were still there the next day when i was over at Grian's. You know, when you woke up. They gave me a healing potion for it, that helped."

"...So i got bruises from you, then? Did Iskall have them too?"

Scar shrugged, and X sighed. This was all so complicated, it was making his head hurt. 

"Wait wait, i got an idea, let me try something!" Scar suddenly looked around himself wildly, then sprinted off into a seemingly random direction. 

"Oi, Scar! We're going to lose Bdubs!", X yelled after him, following the builder. Jellie, who had been thrown off by her owners erratic behavior, followed him on foot.

"Who's losing me? You wish!" Bdub's voice came from a good while away, muffled by the trees. He sounded like he was coming back towards them. 

"Hey, Skellie-bob, over here!"

Scar was running up to a stray skeleton, waving his arms wildly. The mob noticed him, already raising its bow. 

"Scar, what are you doing! You don't have a-" Xisuma was interrupted by the sound of an arrow hitting something. Panicking, he pulled out his sword, shoving Scar aside to attack the skeleton. Two good whacks later, and the mob was nothing but a pile of bones on the floor. They mostly dispersed into a puff of smoke. Fearful, X turned around to Scar. He barely heard the noises of Bdubs breaking trough the foliage with his axe to come to an halt besides them.

Scar was fine, mostly. A singular arrow was stuck in his left arm. He raised it, looking at it. "Ow, ow..." He then looked up to X with a triumphant smile. "Here, see!"

"See what? What are you doing! You don't even have a weapon with you, if i remember right, young man!" X was half scolding him, half relieved that nothing worse happened. Jellied seemed to have the same thought, as she rubbed against Scar's legs, but at the same time meowed at him accusingly.

"Let me see your arm, X!"

"What are you-....oh. Ohh." After a brief moment of confusion, X understood. He rolled up his shirt, exposing his left arm. It was littered with scars, but, more importantly, had a singular, small bruise in the exact same place that Scar's arm had the arrow stuck in it. 

"Ohh. That settles it, then!" X was now getting excited. 

Scar pulled the arrow out with only a slight wince, then quickly ate a Golden Carrot from his inventory. "Ah, that was the last one...", he muttered as he watched the injury on his arm slowly heal. It left a slight mark, but nothing to worry about. 

"What's going on? What are you fools doing?", Bdubs asked, understandably confused. X took a few steps over to him. 

"You see, we have that theory, that every time one of us - Scar, Iskall and me - gets injured, the others kind of... share it. But a lot weaker. Like, Scar gets an arrow in his arm, i get a bruise." X showed him the new bruise on his arm, which was already weakening now that Scar's actual injury was gone.

Bdubs brows furrowed even further, making him look incredibly confused. Before X could start another explanation, though, he heard a hiss behind him.

Next he knew, Jellie was up in his arms, her fur all fluffed up. Her ears were drawn back, and she was still hissing at something.

When X turned around, he instantly knew why.

"Hello, Xisuma."

The man behind him wasn't Scar.


	21. High-suspense search for clues (not)

Over at his base, Grian was growing impatient. He hated not being able to do anything, and sitting around and watching Iskall sleep was... boring, to say it quite frankly. Of course, he was worried about his fellow architech friend, but staring at him wouldn't make him wake up any faster. And even if it did, Mumbo was already on it as well. Earlier this morning, Iskall had woken up shortly. They had given him one of the healing potions, and changes his bandages, but he wasn't able to give them any more information about what happened except that apparently he had been surprised by a stray ghast, which didn't come as much of an surprise at all. After that, he fell into a more comfortable sleep, and the present hermits relaxed a little.

Cub had mostly been busy researching the admin controls, and writing down everything he saw as helpful. He had started making a list of commands X could use and try out, but since Cub himself didn't have any admin rights he couldn't do much else. Grian suspected he was mostly distracting himself. Cub tried not to let it show, but he was still distressed from being killed by Scar, of all people. Maybe some work was right what he needed now. 

Doc, on the other hand, had been restless as well. He spent most of the morning pacing up and down, a worried frown on his face, muttering to himself incoherently. Occasionally, he stopped dead in his tracks as if he had figured something out, but the shook his head and continued on. Grian decided that he needed to do... something. Anything. Both to keep him sane and maybe figure out what happened in the first place. 

He sprang up from his seat suddenly, startling Mumbo. 

"Mumbo!" He pointed at the hermit in question. 

"Me?"

"Tell me again, what did you do on day X?"

"And what's that now?"

"You know, the day this all started, when Xisumavoid, Mr. Goodtimes and Sir 85 all died on the same time and got all messed up afterwards."

"Ah. Right." Mumbo straightened his back, now looking at Grian thoughtfully. "First i had met up with Iskall, and after we said bye i traveled over to my industrial area. I was working on the new Iron farm for a bit... which im super excited to get back to once this is over, by the way - and then ran out of redstone, so i flipped on the witch farm and went to afk for a while."

"How long were you afk for, would you say?"

"What's this, an interrogation?"

"...You know what, maybe it is." Grian grinned as he had a _genius_ idea. Not the good kind of genius idea, of course.

"I was afk for a few hours, until well into the night. Maybe for five hours or so? After that, i went to bed, because i was really tired."

"...And you weren't worried about Iskall dying? Or Xisuma suffocating so often?"

A bit of color crept onto Mumbo's face, and he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Ah, well, you see Grian, i kind of... forgot to check my communicator. I only saw it in the morning. I mean, i saw Iskall and the boys dying, but i didn't think much of it so i went back to afk-ing..."

Grian snorted, breaking his stern interrogation face for a second. 

"Later the next day, i realized i hadn't heard from Iskall in such a long time, and then i came over to you and Xisuma as you were having a tour trough your base.", Mumbo concluded his summary. "After that, i found him on his mooshroom base." His eyes wandered back onto Iskall. 

Grian nodded slowly. That added up.

"You're making your thinking face, Grian.", Mumbo noted, amused. "I hope you're not scheming anything?"

"Scheming? In _my_ me? You must be joking.", Grian said, feigning offendedness. Then, he turned to Doc. "Hey Doc, are you up for another round of Sherlock Grian and Doc Wattson? I wanna find out what happened, and i wanna ask the others what they were doing."

Turns out, Doc was more than eager to do something to help, and after donning their Sherlock and Wattson outfits, the pair of them set out to find the truth.

* * *

They travelled for quite a distance before finding the next hermit to ask - to the other side of the room to be exact.

"On the day that they died first?" Cub asked them, looking up from his communicator. His eyes lingered on Doc's hat and finally came to rest on Grians magnificent eyebrows. "I was at ConCorp, doing some villager trading."

"Nothing more than that?" Grian asked sharply, staying in his detective persona. He even stroked his chin. 

Cub shook his head. "I wasn't that worried at first. It was a little unusual, but nothing too weird. I mean, when does Scar not die from flying the elytra?" He chuckled weakly. "But when X started dying over and over, of course i got worried. I checked the shopping district, but obviously couldn't find him. Doc did."

Doc nodded, taking notes with a book and quill. He was the assistant, after all.

* * *

The next hermit they visited was Stress, all the way out in her ice castle. She greeted them in the entrance hall, seeming way less energetic and bubbly than usual. 

"You guys! Are there any news from the boys? How is Iskall doing?" Of course, she was worried about her friends. She seemed just as restless as Grian had felt just half an hour earlier. 

"Stress! Good to see you.", Doc greeted her. "Iskall is doing a little better, we gave him some potions. Hes still asleep tho. X and Scar went out to visit New Hermitville with Bdubs and Keralis today."

Stress seemed a little less stressed as she heard the news. "Oh, that sounds good, considering the situation..."

Grian loudly cleared his throat, drawing attention. "Stressmonster101, we came here to ask you what you were doing on the day the three of them died, which we titled 'Day X'. Anything... Unusual coming to mind?" He did his best Sherlock face.

Stress had to giggle at his mock-serious tone of voice and his face, but answered nonetheless. "Yeah, I was just building away at the giant Icicle build outside, when i saw the messages! I was so worried, you guys. And then X started dying, and dying...! Also, what happened yesterday! Scar killed Cub? Was it an accident?"

"I'm sorry, maam, but these are classified informations we cannot give out to the public.", Doc started. 

"Oh shut it, you! I'm worried about them, as well." Stress made a disappointed face at him. 

"We can't really say for sure what happened, but we're on our way to find out.", Grian answered, dropping his act. He didn't really want to say anything about Evil Xisuma, though, as that theory wasn't quite confirmed yet. "But it will be fine. We're currently asking everyone what they were doing on that day, so we can get an idea if there was anything weird going on."

Stress' face relaxed a little, and she gave them a smile. "Alright, i trust you guys. Tell me if i can help you in any way, won't 'cha?"

* * *

"Five days ago?" Impulse looked up from the shulker box he was currently cleaning out. He was sitting on the floor of his base, surrounded by shulker boxes full of junk. "I think i was all the way up in the gold farm most of the afternoon. Was gathering up some levels, and some gold so i could restock my store."

"And did you notice anything... unusual?", Grian asked him in his proper Sherlock voice. 

"Hmm..." Impulse propped his chin up on his arms, resting his elbows on the now closed shulker box. He looked tired. If Grian were to have a guess, he would say the redstoner was stress-cleaning. "The pigmen were a little laggy, but nothing weird about that. Must've been a busy day on the server, right?"

Doc and Grian shared a look between them. 

"Are you trying to find out what happened?" Impulse asked, finally getting up from his spot on the floor and brushing off his pants. 

"Yeah, maybe we can find something out.", Doc agreed.

Grian sighed. "I just couldn't stand sitting around all day anymore..."

Impulse gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "I feel you, man, I feel you. So, who is up next?"

* * *

"Impulse!"

"Tango!"

"Hello, good sir!"

Tango jumped up to high-five Impulse and greet the other hermits.

"What brings you guys here? Is Iskall feeling better?", Tango curiously asked as he saw which hermits Impulse had brought along. They had found him on top of the blue dragon head he had been building at the tip of the spiraling towers above his base. Tango had just hung out there, sitting near the ledge and staring over the fantasy district, but he was clearly glad to get some company. Probably had been worried, as well. 

"He will be fine, we believe.", Grian said, then cleared his throat. "Mister Tek, we have a few questions to you if you don't mind."

Tango noticed Grian's outfit, looking up and down before breaking into a grin. "I see Sherlock Grian is back in town! Lay it on me, then."

"Where were you five days ago, around the afternoon?" This time Doc took it onto himself to ask the question. Grian huffed offendedly.

"Let's see..." Tango muttered for a moment, counting something on his fingers. "I... think i was up to my neck in the redstones of Boom Box? Been working on that a lot before... stuff... happened, you know? Wanna get it up and running, finally."

Grian could barely contain his excitement at hearing about this explodey game, but _just_ about managed to hold on to his whole detective stick. "........I see. Can you tell us anything else?"

Tango tapped his chin, thinking. "...I think there was a creeper explosion at some point, somewhere in the distance."

"Must be the one Iskall died in? If I remember right he wanted to restock R.U.N.", Impulse threw in. 

Doc nodded eagerly and wrote everything down. So far, everything was adding up. To what it was adding up, they weren't sure yet, but there was probably something to find out.

"I think Zed was in the area as well? Have you been to him yet?" Tango asked. 

Grian shook his head. "Not yet. Might as well go to him next, right?"

* * *

"Well, you see, I was in New Hermitville - in the Minigame area, mind you - and i was testing my latest project!"

"And that would be...?"

Zedaph clapped his hands together, grinning excitedly. "I'm glad you asked!"

"Oh no, here we go again...", Impulse chuckled. Tango seemed to agree. It had taken Doc and Grian quite a while to calm Zed down after he saw Tango and Impulse (and the others) when he came over. They had asked him per chat to come, since no one really knew where he usually hung around nowadays. They had met up in the shopping district, and were currently wandering over the nicely trimmed lawn of Sahara. 

"It's quite simple, really! The name of the game is R G B, and it gives you quite the exercise!" Zed was most likely to go into a full on rant/advertising campaign about his newest invention, and they all knew there was hardly anything to stop him once he started. 

Grian and Doc sighed inwardly, while Impulse and Tango could barely contain their laughter, but did nothing to stop their friend.

* * *

"What are you boys doing all down here?" TFC greeted them in his usual direct attitude. 

They stood in the entrance hallway of his vault, just down the ladder and in front of the piston vault door that lead to the innards of TFC's base. Grian looked around, astounded. He hadn't really had a chance to come down here before.

"We're asking everyone what they were doing five days ago, when X lost his memories." Doc got right to the point. "Anything come to mind?"

TFC hummed thoughtfully. "I usually go mining in the afternoon, so that's where I was at. When I came back a few hours later, I read all of the stuff that was going on in chat." He rubbed the back of his head. "Was pretty scary, if I'm being honest."

Grian frowned. "Yeah, it was super creepy when Xisuma died again and again. Never saw something like that before." He looked up into TFCs eyes. "Apparently he can't breathe without his helmet. Did you know that?"

"Hm.", TFC made, indiscernible if it was an agreement or not. Grian decided to leave it at that. 

"Alright then, thank you for your time dude! See you soon!" Him and Doc waved goodbye and turned around, walking back towards the ladder.

"...Wait."

Grian stopped, turning around to the older hermit again. 

"...Will Xisuma be okay? 'Hate to see anything happen to the boy."

Grian gave him a genuine smile. "We'll get trough this, i'm sure. X is a strong guy, and we have a pretty good idea of what's going on now, so we just need to figure out how to help him."

"Yeah, he will be fine, TFC.", Doc agreed.

TFC nodded at them once, apparently satisfied with the answer, before they left his base.

* * *

"Me? I didn't do anything weird."

"We're not judging you, we just want to know! ...unless it's something embarrassing, then we're totally judging you." Grian pressed on, trying to get the slime man to talk. 

Jevin sighed, putting down his pickaxe. His storage system had to wait, apparently. "Five days ago? I was over at Tango's Iron farm, because i was... all out of iron."

Doc and Grian stayed silent.

"What! You said you wouldn't judge me!"

"That's just... a little disappointing. I thought it would've been something more interesting, to be honest."

"Well, sorry that i'm not up to crazy stuff all the time!" Jevin seemed angry, then caught himself and took a deep breath. "I'm... I'm sorry. Im just a bit stressed, that's all. Scar and Iskall are great dudes, and hearing about them like this is.... nerve-wracking. And Xisuma! The man always knows what he's doing, and how to help everyone! And he's just..." He dropped his hands to his sides, the slime making a squishy noise. "I think not being able to help is getting to me, to be honest. I know im not the most involved in what everyone's up to and all, but this..."

* * *

"Ah! There you are, Ren!" 

"Oh hey man, what is up my dudes!" Ren turned around to them, beaming at his visitors. He quickly jumped down from the build he was just working on, just behind his Dragon Dojo, and swooped down to them per elytra. He waved at them, but then stopped and frowned upon noticing their outfits. 

"Are you... Sherlock Grian and Doctor Wattson? Without me??" He pouted, crossing his arms in front of his chest. 

"Well, there were mysteries to solve! And, it was kind of an impromptu thing anyways." Grian tried to defend himself, then offered Ren a sheepish smile and a high five. "No hard feelings?" 

"No hard feelings.", Ren confirmed and took the High five. He didn't seem too bothered, anyways. 

"How are you holding up, Ren?", Doc asked, eyeing the building behind them suspiciously. Scaffolding or outlines were constructed with lime wool, and it looked very janky at the moment. 

"Oh you know, keeping myself busy." Ren shrugged, but his smile got a little lopsided. His optimism was now not very convincing anymore. "Any news from the boys?" 

"X and Scar are doing better, they're taking a tour with Bdubs and Keralis right now." 

"Ah i see, maybe that helps with the whole... memory lossage."

Grian nodded. "That's what we hope too! Iskall should be... okay... but, he still hasn't woken up..." He sighed. He tried his best not to show it, but the stress and worry was getting to him as well, of course. 

"Don't worry too much man, he's a tough dude! He will get trough this, alright?" 

Ren sympathetically patted Grians shoulder, and got a smile in return. 

"So, what are you two fine fellas up to?" 

"You see, Mr. TheDog-" Grian straightened his posture and raised his eyebrows in a detective-like fashion. "We are currently on a case, the case of figuring out what happened on the day Scar, Iskall, and Xisuma died. That was now five days ago." He made a meaningful pause. "Did you perhaps... notice anything unusual?" Another eyebrow raise, for the effect. 

"Hmm, let me think for a second... Do you want some cookies by the by?" He walked over to a set of shulker boxes, rummaging trough them. 

"Aha! A foul attempt to distract and bribe us! ...but yes please i will take some cookies."

"Ahh, this is just like back when we caught the jangler!", Doc said as the three of them sat down, each with a cookie in their hands. 

"Alright, so, five days ago... I was running my new flower farm all day, testing to see how much goodies it would produce in a day.", Ren thoughtfully chewed on his own cookie. 

Grian hummed. "Was the farm running smoothly?" 

"Hm, it was a bit laggy to be fair. The flowers came along nicely, though."

"Did anything else happen?"

"Well, you know, i was really concerned when i real chat after it... happened. You know, with Xisuma."

Doc nodded, not sure what else to say. "Found him at spawn. It was... pretty rough."

They agreed in silence. 

* * *

"So, in conclusion-", Grian began, pacing up and down in front of iTrade. Then, he stopped. "-in conclusion what? Did we even find out anything?"

Doc scrolled trough his notes. "Well, lets see... i was looking at one of the farms near spawn... You were working on something at Sahara... X was in the end, i think he was shulker hunting. Loading a lot of new chunks in the end is pretty taxing. Iskall was working on R.U.N. redstone. Scar was at his cherry factory, where there's a lot of villagers and golems." He looked up.

"What are you saying?"

"Look at this: Mumbo was at his crazy witch farm. I was at a farm, and so were Ren, Jevin and Impulse. Other than that, the hermits were villager trading, in the minigame district with all the redstone stuff..."

"So... the whole server was already struggling to keep up? Hm, Ren and Impulse did say their farms were pretty laggy. And we all know Mumbo's industrial district." Grian scratched his chin. "But why did they all die at the same time?

"And, more importantly, why is Evil Xisuma showing up now?", Doc growled. "Something must have gone wrong with the server when they all died at the same time. Or, maybe with their own accounts, since everyone else seems to be doing fine. It's just Xisuma, Iskall and Scar who got hurt, and its just the three of them who are experiencing weird respawns, right?"

"As far as i know..." Grian trailed off as both of their communicators buzzed a few times. With how on edge they were the whole time, both of them were scanning the chat within seconds.

There were several new messages in the main group chat, and, save for a single sign of hope, none of them could be considered good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was a little bit of a break! we are now entering the last third of the plot! :D
> 
> Next chapter is pretty far along already (although i have... procrastinated on it by writing the chapter AFTER that first haha), so i might do an weekend update!
> 
> After that... would you guys be a fan of some backstory? xisuma (and a liiiiitle~ evil x) related? or should i rather get on with the story?  
> (like, i'd say, chapter 22 is half-written, and chapter 24 is mostly written with a little room for more words. not sure if i will do ch23 (backstory) or leave it out entirely, its not mandatory.)
> 
> let me know! And, as always, thank you for reading and commenting! <3


	22. Scars face learns to make many new expressions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!  
> Here's the long awaited chapter. Fun fact, when i started out with the idea for this fic, i had two scenes in mind: one was what became the very very first chapter, with X waking up in the end, and the other was what now got split up into the end of this chapter/beginning of chapter 24. I've written parts of this all the way back in december, i think.
> 
> ...That being said, the rest of this chapter was... a difficult birth. It's not my best work, and it's probably not what you guys were hoping for, but it is what it is now (this is the second attempt at writing it actually) and im tired of.... not having it posted.
> 
> So, here you go!
> 
> I'm also disregarding Wednesday as an update day, because i have no reason to stick to it anymore. Hopefully, that means more updates :D

Of course, the man behind him still was Scar, but... X just somehow knew that Scar was different. Wrong. His tone of voice made X's blood freeze and his skin prickle with guilt.

 _Guilt_?

"Ah.", Xisuma began, fully turning around to face 'Scar'. He deliberately put away any items from his hands. "Hi there, buddy.", he started, carefully.

'Scar' looked around. He was methodically scanning the area, noticing Bdubs in the background, his ganze lingering on his axe. He looked at Jellie, but she just hissed at him once more and he ever so slightly recoiled. When he was done taking in his environment, he turned to X. 

"Xisuma. Finally." He inspected the item in his hand, which was still the arrow that Scar had pulled out of his arm earlier, then dropped it carelessly.

"Evil Xisuma, as I suppose?" X held on onto Scars cat, stoking her fur soothingly. 

'Scars' face twisted into a very un-Scar-like smirk. "I've been trying to find you, actually."

X thought back to the past week. How they found Scar in his base. How 'Scar' had written 'WHERE IS XISUMA' in chat. In Galactic, none the less. How he had pointed at him yesterday, when Mumbo had found him, but lost his hold over Scar before he could say what he wanted. "...So I noticed.", X simply answered to his inquiry. "Well, here I am. I'm afraid i'm not of much help to you, though."

'Scar' hesitated. X noticed Bdubs coming closer and standing directly next to him, his axe still ready. For a moment, he worried about it, but then he saw 'Scar's expression shift. He looked confused, looking between X and Bdubs.

"...What do you mean, you're not of much help? And who is this guy?"

"I lost my memories five days ago." X answered bluntly, wondering how the other's reaction would be.

"Oh so you don't know good old Bdubs?", the other man in question answered as well, offended. "I'll have you known, I am one of the most beautiful, most-"

"I don't care, actually! Jeez." 'Scar' threw his hands up. "You can get lost!" He halted, apparently rifling trough Scars inventory, growing increasingly frustrated at whatever he was or wasn't seeing. "Ugh! Take that!" He threw an onslaught of dirt blocks at Bdubs, obviously in lack of a better weapon. They uselessly dropped to the floor, stacking together. With a scowl, 'Scar' pulled his arm back to throw a piece of string, but then froze mid-movement. 

"Hold on, what do you mean you 'lost your memories five days ago'?"

"Well, I mean, I don't fancy that to be a particularly complicated sentence, but basically what happened is, I woke up, in the end, and didn't remember who I was." X crossed his arms, eyes shifting to the sides.

'Scar' seemed stunned. He didn't say anything, so X took that as a queue to go on.

"Doc found me at spawn after I died. He brought me to Grians base, everyone was really nice to me. They tried to help me to get my memories back, took me on tours, showed me things on this server. You- I mean, Scar showed up. On the first day after I woke up he was all confused, losing sleep. Then we found him in my base. I suppose that was you?"

'Scar' nodded, dumbfounded. His face was going on a bit of a facial journey right now, and once more X was glad that his own emotions were a bit hidden behind his helmet. "...I was trying to find you. Only had a few minutes the first few times around. I... I think i fell into your redstone circuits."

"Yeah. After that, Mumbo found Iskall, all... confused and hurting and with a broken eye."

"Iskall?"

"Spiky hair, beard. Has a cybernetic eye."

Evil Xisuma squinted with Scars face, trying to remember anyone fitting this description. "Looks like a creeper?"

"No, that's Doc."

"Ugh, there's too many of those bloody hermits anyways...", 'Scar' huffed, crossing his arms. It was weird hearing him say that with Scars voice, to be honest. His defiantly tilted chin was a strange expression on the kind builders face, as well.

"Anyways, Iskall is hurt, Doc helped him repair his eye. At one point, we got the theory that my memories ended up in Iskalls brain."

There might as well have a giant question mark been written over Scars face.

X sighed. "He remembers things he shouldn't, and I don't remember things that I should. We discussed it at length, it all adds up."

"But how does that make any sense?", Bdubs asked, startling X slightly. He had almost forgotten the builder was still there. 

"Well, at first, it didn't. But earlier today, Scar and me figured out our accounts are connected somehow - Iskall as well - since we share.... well, pain? It's pretty weird, but something went wrong on that day when we died."

"Oh. Oh it definitely did.", Evil Xisuma started, slowly. He was beginning to catch on. "Something must have... _broken_. So that's where I come in."

"How so?", X asked, curious.

"Well, as we all know, my and your accounts are connected closely." He stared into X's and Bdubs face, waiting for their confirmation.

They did, in fact, not all know. He sighed, annoyed. 

"Well. They are. So if my account is connected to yours, and your account wrongly connected with this guy-" he gesticulated towards his body. "-because _something_ broke - it makes sense that I would end up here after trying to log in while being banned."

"...Oh.", X simply made. "...I guess?"

"Which! Brings us to the next point! The actual reason i'm here, in fact."

X raised an eyebrow, which probably wasn't visible trough his helmet, and cocked his head to the side. 

Jellie, meanwhile, had calmed down a bit and wrangled herself out of X's arms, dropping to the floor. 'Scar' noticed. He kneeled down. At first X was afraid he would try to hurt the cat, but he just stretched out his arms and started beckoning her. 

"Hey there kitty, come over here! Oh you're a cute one, aren'tcha?" He clicked his tongue and made all the noises people usually did when trying to get a cat within petting range. It was.... bizarre. The more X thought about it, the less evil this Evil Xisuma guy seemed. Apparently he had totally forgotten the entire situation and conversation, instead focusing on the cat. Jellie, meanwhile, was still growling slightly, eyeing her possessed owner with great suspicion. She took a few steps towards him, stretching her neck to sniff at his hands. 

"There you are! Come here, kitty!"

Then, Jellie heartily bit into 'Scar's hand, sinking her teeth into his fingers.

"OW! What in the-?!", 'Scar' yelped, withdrawing his hand and stumbling backwards. He had a look of betrayal on his face. "What did you do that for?"

Jellie just mewed, ignoring his yelling and striding back to X, where she sat down behind his legs. 

X grinned, but then shook his head. They were getting distracted. "...Right. What were you saying?"

"Huh?"

"Why you were here to see me."

"...Right." 'Scar cleared his throat, then crossed his arms and looked at X. "Xisuma, unban me."

"...Why?" Granted, 'Evil Xisuma' hadn't been particularly threatening during their conversation, but X hadn't heard good things of him either. Killing Cub was pretty high on that list. And considering everything, he still had his doubts about having someone named "Evil Xisuma" living on the same server as him. _How did he get this name, anyways? And... why does an evil version of me exist in the first place?_ Once more, he wondered what he had been up to in the past few years. Yeah, by now he knew of the many worlds the hermits had inhabited together, but what had been before that? Where did he come from?

However, now wasn't exactly the best time to have an existential crisis. He turned back to Scar/Evil Xisuma.

"Why?", 'Scar' repeated, letting out a disbelieving chuckle, but then turned serious. "Because it is pretty pants, that's why! I don't want to be banned! Xisuma, please." 

X hesitated. After all, this man literally had 'Evil' in his name. But the way, he talked, the way he said 'please'... X didn't know much about him, but something told him this was not someone who easily asked for help. Not someone who usually asked for something. Up until now, he had had the demeanor of someone who just did what he wanted, just _took_ , but now, his expression shifted.

'Scar' had a pleading look on his face, now almost looking desperate. "I want to get out of there. I'm... I'm sorry I kept bothering you, okay? I won't destroy the server this time if you unban me, I promise." He grabbed X by his shoulders, looking directly into his eyes with Scars green ones. "Hell, i'll even go back home! I don't have to be here if you don't want me here, i'll go back into the Eternal End, the void dimension, but... please. Anything is better than being banned. Please, don't... don't leave me there, again... I know you're mad I tried to trick you, and I know I got out of banishment the last time by myself, but somehow... I can't this time. You really got me. I... I promise I won't be evil anymore! I'll do anything. Xisuma, _please_."

X was taken aback by the sudden emotion that laid in the man's pleas. He sounded like he was about to cry. In fact, X could see his eyes starting to pool up. The fact that he didn't even try to hide it told him he was serious. 

Call him gullible, but X genuinely wanted to help this man right now. He knew that it might have been a trick, but he felt so bad for him, so _guilty_ , that he was almost convinced to listen to him. He turned around to Bdubs, trying to gauge how his reaction would be, since the other hermit still had his memories and all.

To his slight surprise, Bdubs was looking remorseful, almost sad. He stared at the axe in his hand for a second, then at 'Scar', and, finally, turned towards X. 

"Xisuma, don't you think you've been a bit harsh to this guy? Maybe.... maybe you should give him a second chance." Bdub's voice was soft.

"Look, I.... I don't know if i've already given him a second chance, or a third, or not. But... I do feel a bit bad. And, well, if he does anything bad, there's still enough hermits to stop him, right? Or i could just... ban him again, if I need to."

He looked down to Scar, who's expression morphed into something more hopeful.

X let out a deep sigh, deflating. "... Yeah fine. I'll try. But I can't promise anything, since I still don't know how all this admin stuff works."

After all, he owed it to Iskall and Scar as well. Maybe he could find something to help with Iskalls memory problems, too. However, he still really didn't like it. Who knew what could go wrong? 

'Scar' on the other hand started to look excited. "Ah, great!"

He kept looking at X, expectantly. There was a moment of silence.

"What, you mean like, right now?", X asked him, suddenly growing nervous. 

"Yes, of course! No better time than the present right? That's what you always say.", 'Scar' said, overly enthusiastic. 

"Okay, now you're really pulling my leg.", X snorted, but pulled out his communicator anyways. Was that something he 'always said' or was Evil Xisuma making that one up? He did have a point though, to be fair; there was no time better than the present. ...Right? Suddenly X really wished for the advice of the other hermits, like Doc or Cub. He considered asking them for help in the chat, or at least telling them what he was planning to do. 

"Are you doing it?" 'Scar' asked impatiently, leaning over his shoulder.

"Yeah yeah, give me one second.", X sighed. This was no good. Messing with the admin controls without knowing what he was doing seemed like a bad idea all around. But, he was committed now, so he had no choice but to try it. Unbanning couldn't be that hard, right? It was just one thing.

Hesitantly, he started typing. From what he had gathered so far, admin commands usually started with a '/', so that was the first thing that went into his command bar. Immediately, his communicator showed him a long, _long_ list of options. _Oof_. _What now?_

"Whoo! Show him who's boss!", Bdubs cheered him on, doing nothing to ease X's anxiety about the whole operation.

He rifled trough the list for a few moments, but it was sorted alphabetically and he didn't even get to 'b' before he felt overwhelmed. Instead, he started typing in 'unban'. Could it really be as simple at that? There were no further prompts, so he added 'EvilXisuma' to the command. That should do the trick, right?

Before hitting enter, though, he looked up once more. 'Scar seemed impatient, urging him to go on. Bdubs was just looking plain curious, peeking over his other shoulder. 

"You think this will work?", X asked, still insecure. There was nothing much that could go wrong with a simple command just like this, right? 

"Yeah, go for it Xisuma!!", Bdubs encouraged him. 

With another deep breath, X hit enter. However, the text immediately showed up red in his chat. 

**/unban EvilXisuma**

**Unknown command**

**/unban EvilXisuma <\-- [HERE]**

"It doesn't work.", X stated, furrowing his brows. He shuffled over to show 'Scar' his admin screen, being projected out from his communicator. What had he done wrong? 

"Huh?", came the answer, way more confused than X had expected. He looked up into Evil Xisuma's eyes, only to find no trace of him there. Scar was back. Jellie, who had been hanging around X the whole time, immediately jumped up into his arms. 

"What are we doing here?", Scar asked after a second, staring at the admin panel in front of him. He absent-mindedly petted his cat. 

Xisuma sighed. "I'm trying to unban Evil X. Maybe he won't be possessing you anymore then, you know."

"Hm." Scars mouth drew a line. You could basically see the cogs in his head turning as he thought. "...I don't like the idea, but you could be onto something here. Looks like /unban isn't the right command though..."

"What should I type in then?"

"Pardon that sucker!", Bdubs suggested.

"Try adding him to the whitelist, then?"

Xisuma was helplessly overwhelmed and scared of messing something up, but he tentatively typed in '/whitelist' into his command bar. It auto-completed itself, then showed him more options to continue.

**/whitelist add EvilXisuma**

Taking a deep breath, X hit send once more.

Immediately, he cried out as a wave of sharp pain shot trough his head, only for him to black out completely within the second.


	23. The road to hell is called memory lane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am most considerately releasing this just before everyone starts playing animal crossing and/or doom.
> 
> HERMIT CHALLENGES: Watch all of Xisumas episodes alongside reading this chapter.
> 
> This chapter sure was a journey and a half! It's also my longest yet. Also, please keep in mind that these are just my personal ideas and headcanons.  
> (i kept to his 'history of hermitcraft' video for most of the timeline, but i obviously took some creative liberties and added a lot of backstory before that.)
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> (alternate chapter title: "I am one minutes old today...")

The events of the past few days repeated themselves inside of X's head, playing out in his mind like a backwards movie. There he was, at the IDEA build. In Grians base, talking to Grian, Mumbo and Iskall. Out in his base, finding Scar together with Ren. Waking up in that bed in Grians base, confused, lost. Stumbling trough the end, helmet in hand.

Levitating in the void and then falling, trying and failing to deploy his elytra.

Travelling from Endcity to Endcity, fighting against shulkers and collecting their shells for his latest project.

Walking trough the nether hub, greeting other hermits as he rushed past them.

Working on the IDEA building, meeting up with Bdubs and Keralis to talk about their progress.

He remembered another world, a home with a large mountain over it, different biomes lining the island. He built that. 

He remembered more worlds. A Star-shape on fire, filled with giant Guardians. An entire desert, mined away. Season 3. Season 2. Season 1. His home. The void.

The Eternal End.

A few of his memories stuck out in particular as they came flooding back.

* * *

He groaned softly as he slowly, and painfully, drifted into consciousness. Everything hurt. The man’s head was swimming, spiraling further away every time he tried to get his grip on a thought or sensation, leaving him dizzy and blinded. What was going on?  
  
He took a deep breath to earth himself, then opened his eyes and sat up. In front of him was an incredible landscape. The ground was made from soft pastel yellow stone, with purple plants snaking all the way up into the sky. Above him, it was dark, and he could see into the endless void. He was on the ground, his muscles hurting. His face felt warm.

The man raised a hand to touch his forehead, and when he looked at it, it was bloody. The blood was red. A large gash was drawn across his face, making it difficult to see out of his left eye, and another gash crossed it in an X-shape. X.

The man stood up, confused. The area around him was full of life. Black, long-legged creatures wandered around, all apprehensive of him. They all had purple eyes. Most of them had fangs, and claws, and many many legs. There were a multitude of different creatures, all creeping up to him, coming a bit closer. The fauna was incredible as well. Mostly composed of the purple, hard-shelled trees, there were also smaller plants: ferns, fans, vines snaking across the floor. Purple seemed to be the dominant color. 

The man looked up. In front of him were buildings, a massive city. Multiple towers stretched towards each other, built of yellow and purpur stones, lit up brightly and connected by bridges and branches. It seemed like a chaotic mess, but there was a structure to it. Well, there had been. The central building had half of it's walls missing. Most of the tower tops were blown off, stone still crumbling down. Fires had broken out, and smoke was still rising from the city. It looked like a giant explosion had just taken place. 

He started walking towards the city, blood still dripping freshly from his face. The creatures didn't bother him. They seemed scared of him, if anything, moving out of his way. There was a path cleared trough the dense purple forest, almost if something had crashed trough it with great force. Himself? The path led straight towards the center of the city, so he followed. 

He wandered around for a while, taking in the structures. He found people. All dead. They were scattered trough the city, mostly in the middle part. They looked nothing like him, though. They had pale, yellowish skin, large noses, and were wearing dark clothes. The only similarity to him were their purple eyes, although they were dulled and not brightly glowing like the ones he saw in his reflection in a glass window. He looked at himself for a second longer. He had short, spiky brown hair, freckles dotted around his face, and, of course, the huge bloody X tearing trough the skin of his face. He was wearing a simple black long shirt. 

The closer he got to the central area, the more dead villagers he found. Some of them were wearing armor, dark black and purple-ish. He took some from them for himself to wear. The wouldn't be needing it anymore, and he felt more protected.

Finally, he reached the most central chamber. 

He would always remember the sight: A huge room, the ceiling almost comically high. Tubes and cables running all over the place. Glass, broken and scattered across the floor. One wall and half the ceiling, blown out, the edges still sizzling. In the middle, a broken glass chamber, fluids leaking out. He found red blood on that glass. The villagers had purpur blood. 

He remembered finding the logs. Large screens, most of them broken, some still functional. He could read the strange symbols, fluently. It had been an experiment. 

Subject X, they had called him. 

The logs started with warnings about the creatures of the place. Endermen. Enderpedes. Enderlings. All vicious, all deadly. Enderlings looked like the ones he had seen in the forest. The others had pictures attached as well. Large fangs. Glowing eyes. Fiery breath. Some could teleport, some could levitate. Others had abilities not even known by the City inhabitants. Some were more passive, some were immediately hostile. The creatures were all dangerous, though. The villagers wanted to protect themselves. So, they started a new project, trying to create a weapon, a guardian. 

Him. 

They had taken data, DNA, from various void creatures, making him resistent to the dangers of this dimension.

They had also found something else: A player. A human? They weren't sure. Probably not quite a human. They had been scared of him. They had feared him, but they had managed to get his DNA as well. His body. His brown hair. 

Subject X found himself in his description, save for a few void-like features. 

The 'human', if it had ever been one, had disappeared shortly after. They were glad about it.

X had understood that they had created him, brought him into existence. He didn't know if that was good or bad. Something must have happened, something that had destroyed the place. The latest security feed showed a large creature bursting into a room, destroying the glass tube, freeing him. After that, the feed went black, only explosions and screams to be heard. 

X wanted to leave. He felt sick.

He saw a helmet, having slipped off of a small pedestal. He tried it. It fit perfectly. Made for him. He saved the logs on a chip on his helmet. Maybe they could be useful.

Then, he left.

The next months, he walked. 

He traveled trough this dimension, which he would later in his life call the Eternal End. He would later, much later, come across similar places, similar dimensions, which people were calling The End, but they never were quite as... much as this place. The End had it's limits. The End was barren, and centered around a single island. The End was usually a calm, empty void. A few Enderman, some small end cities, lots of chorus plants. The End was always like a lesser version of this, a small portion, an outskirt area. 

This place, however, was full of life, and none of the life seemed to want **him** alive.

So, he fought. 

He fought Endermen, much more vicious and brutal than the ones he would meet later in his life. These Endermen attacked him instantly, teleporting left and right until he could get a hold of them to bring them down. This way, he figured out he was quite strong. He didn't have any weapons. The endermen's fangs left quite a few scars on him.

He fought Enderpedes, large, snake-like creatures with way too many legs. They walked all over him, until he could grip onto them, tearing off their shells. 

Shulkers were cute, but the older variants got larger and larger the longer they lived. They turned into big, lumpy creatures, reaching out their spiky shells to reach him with their weird, spindly arms. The only solution was to rip apart their protection. He used it for himself. 

There were many more creatures. Each claw left it's mark on him, each fang that tore into him made him a little more careful, and unrelenting. He didn't give in. 

He fought his way trough the hordes, seeing many beautiful biomes on his travels, each weirder and more dangerous than the last. He rested, trying his best to keep his strength, but never managed to settle down anywhere. He ate chorus fruit, and the flesh that was dropped from some of the creatures. 

How much time had it been? Months? Years?

One day, he fought a giant dragon-like creature, roaring and flying above him, gnawing at him with venomous fangs and eight legs to grab and drop him. 

When he finally won, something happened. 

Something opened up.

A portal.

An opportunity. 

* * *

The first time he saw the overworld, outside of the void, away from the Eternal End, the only place he had known so far, it was breathtaking.

His helmet helped him with the actual breathing, but nothing quite prepared him for the beauty of the overworld. Luscious green grass. Trees. A soft breeze, making him shudder. Animals, peaceful, going about their business. It was... really nice.

It took X a few weeks to relax, to not jump at every noise, to not fight every time something moved. He learned that he couldn't breathe overworld air for too long, so he always wore his helmet. It was too peaceful at first, and it took him a long time to adjust. Of course, there were still enemies: Creepers, skeletons, Zombies. But he learned how to make weapons, how to build a small house for himself. He started to make a home, figured out how to farm for crops and food. He liked the overworld food. 

He settled in. It was his own little world, no one there to attack him. 

He discovered how everything worked. Building. Redstone. Farms, animals, weapons and tools.

He discovered music, often humming little tunes to himself as he worked, finding discs he could play and listen to.

He chose a name for himself, keeping the X.

He made himself new armor, using parts of the old one and bits he found in this world. He made it the nice, relaxing green of the overworld plants. 

It was his little world.

Xisumas world.

* * *

After a while, a few months, he returned to the Eternal End. He set up on a mostly empty island. 

He found another portal, another world.

However, this one was different.

He figured out how to control the world. He had found a way to open it up, make it accessible.

Other people came to his world.

* * *

When it first happened, he had just been building his first little house in this fresh world, setting up a new place to live. He had become fairly decent at it. 

However, he turned around when he heard steps behind him, alarmed. Instead of a mob, a skeleton or a zombie maybe, he saw a girl. She had long, blonde hair, and was wearing goggles on top of her head. She waved at him friendly, giving him a smile. 

"Hi! Nice to meet you!", she started. 

Xisuma nodded, carefully. It was the first time he saw another player, after all. 

"Uh, I'm FalseSymmetry. Call me False.", she introduced herself, wandering around his build to have a look at it. 

"...Xisuma.", he finally muttered. His voice was quiet. He had never talked before.

* * *

It turned out he was used to writing in a different language than them. They called it galactic, but it had been the only one X had known so far. He could understand them in english, though. He just had to learn the written version of it, which he did pretty quickly. 

From this point onward, things developed fast. People joined his world, and these people invited more people. Some were more active, some less. X kept a little to himself at first, but opened up more and more. People would say Xisuma was very softspoken and quiet, not really talking a lot, but he got better and better at it. He made friends. False became a good friend of his. Mumbo joined his server as well, just a little boy with some mustache stubble at the time. Xisuma saw him grow up over the years. 

He heard of other servers, other worlds. People knew people, and people also started to know him. It felt... good. It was nice to have friends who cared about him.

Eventually, he was invited to another world, by GenerikB.

Hermitcraft. The first season.

* * *

He had a great time. He made a lot of new friends. After a few months, they decided to move worlds. Generik left. Others joined. Mumbo came to Hermitcraft for Season 2. TFC and Tango joined. False joined, as well.

Halfway trough Season 2, Xisuma took on more duties in their community, organizing things, becoming the head of the group. Not the leader, but... a 'steward', as he liked to call himself. He was doing well. This was also when he took on his admin duties for this and the consequent worlds.

Tango joined them, originally helping them with an Iron farm but then just... staying with them. 

Season 2 ended, and before the hermits moved to the next world, X once more returned to the Eternal End.

* * *

He was still new to admin commands, and they were really interesting, so he spent his time diving right into them. He set up a small base on one of the Islands, where the creatures were mostly peaceful - or maybe they were just scared of him at this point? - and he wouldn't be bothered by anything. He started digging into the administrative options, learning about command blocks, learning how to manipulate the individual worlds. He was constantly surrounded by command screens, admin panels, data logs. He looked into his own account, deciphering the code and untangling it's mysteries.

Xisuma was experimenting with it, as well. There were so many new options that opened up to him now. He was simply curious, testing out his powers. He could give himself effects, make him fly and levitate, teleport him around. Of course, not all of these things were good. In his experiments, he also managed to poison himself, to set himself on fire and whatnot. He was simply testing out his limits, and sometimes he overstepped them in the process. 

Until one day, when he went in way too far over his head. 

He had been inspecting the data of his own account once more, seeing his health bar, the logs attached to him. He had loaded the logs he found on his very first day into his account, making sure they were always backed up.

Reading trough the logs, he changed a few lines of code here, made a backup copy of his account there. Curiously, he wondered what would happen if he would load it while not in an actual world, instead being here in what he assumed to be his home dimension. What would happen if he was there while he loaded an replica of his account data.

What happened, was not good.

It was like looking into a mirror. The other man looked almost exactly like him, down to the shape of his nose and the spiky brown hair. His freckles were a bit lighter and there were more of them, sure, and he was missing all of Xisuma's scars, but other than that, he was an exact copy of him. How he had looked when he had first started existing. He even held a helmet in his hands, an mirror image of X's own.

A clone. A twin brother?

"Uh, hello. Nice to meet you!" X greeted him, bar of anything else to say. He closed down the admin screens. 

The other Xisuma looked around himself, then mustered Xisuma himself. "...Hi. Who are you?", he finally asked. His voice sounded exactly like Xisuma's own.

A shiver ran down X's spine. What had he done? "My name is Xisuma. And, uh, you are me, i suppose."

"I am you?" The other inspected his hands, and his outfit. 

Xisuma chewed on his lips nervously. This wasn't meant to happen. He didn't mean to do this. Could he reverse the process? Unload the second account he had created?

A quick look into his data logs told him that the other Xisuma had his own separate account, but was somehow tied to him. Did he have admin rights also? X couldn't quite tell. If he had admin rights, they were somehow different from his own. His fingers hovered over the button to set back the last few commands he did and unload the other Xisuma.

He looked up. His copy was looking around the End End, marvelling at the strange plants, wondering at the creatures that hid between them. He had a soft smile on his face.

Xisuma sighed.

No, he couldn't do this. Killing monsters that attacked him was one thing, but in his heart, Xisuma was a kind person. He couldn't, and wouldn't, harm another person. Even if it was a weird copy of him he called into life on accident. Well, if that wasn't gonna give him more sleepless nights than he already had, then he didn't know what else would.

He dropped his admin screens again and walked up to his mirror. 

"Look. You're a... a clone of my own account. But you are your own person, okay? You are you. You just happened to... originate from me, but now you are someone unique. Alright?"

The other Xisuma mustered him sharply, for a long while. X felt like he was being judged.

"Okay.", the other man finally said, nodding. It sounded neutral. X couldn't tell what he was thinking.

_Great, he has existed for a whole minute and i already can't tell what is going on in his brain. Oh boy...._

They talked more, wandering around the Eternal End. It turned out Other Xisuma had no memories of Xisuma's adventures in the overworld servers, but vaguely knew about the End End and it's creatures. He didn't quite know about Xisuma's own origin, but maybe that was just in a subconscious part of his brain. 

* * *

The two of them spent the upcoming weeks together. X was glad to have someone to talk to, and the other Xisuma had an unbound curiosity about everything. They traveled around the Eternal End, fighting monsters together. The other Xisuma started growing his hair out, while X himself liked to keep it short. Other Xisuma wasn't quite as strong physically speaking as Xisuma, mostly because he didn't have years of survival on his records, but he was a fast learner and crafty with weaponry. He also had a tendency to get a little too close to the end creatures for Xisumas comfort. He was more fascinated by them than cautious, and while X didn't hesitate to dispatch of an attacking monster, his new twin seemed to study them more than fight against them.

One day though, he went a little far. They had wandered into one of the really dark Chorus forests, where there was no light coming trough and they had to rely on their own void-seeing eyes, glowing purple-ish in the dark. Xisuma knew that many End creatures lurked around here, so he wasn't surprised when a Enderpede broke trough the branches, pinning him under it's many legs. It's fangs were dangerously close to his face, snapping open and close sharply. Four glowing eyes bore down on him menacingly, and Xisuma just about managed to keep it at bay before it tore his head off.

"Ugh! X, a little help?!", he cried out, not leaving the monster out of his sight. When he heard nothing, He frantically looked around, using his legs to get some distance between himself and the writhing black creature and it's hard shell. Out of the corner of his eye, he though he saw the other Xisuma just crouching nearby, watching, but then the Enderpede pulled back to lash out at him again and he used the possibility to roll out from underneath it. One of it's sharp legs tore trough the armor on his arm, leaving a substantial gash. 

X growled, turning around on his heel to orient himself towards the creature, then started running until he barreled into it. With pure strength, he drove it back, pushing against it's body while keeping away from it's teeth. He kept shoving, unyielding, setting one foot in front of the other, breaking chorus plants left and right until finally, he reached the edge of the void island. With one last giant heave of effort, he pushed the Enderpede off the edge, watching as it screeched and twisted, falling into the merciless void. Then, he turned around to Other Xisuma, who had followed him nonchalantly, hands in his pockets.

"Jeez. Why didn't you help me? That thing nearly got me.", X asked, letting out a nervous chuckle. He wiped some blood off his arm, looking at his injury. It wasn't that bad.

"Well, you seemed like you had it under control, i didn't want to interfere!", Other Xisuma said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "And you did! All by yourself!"

 _Yeah, just liked i have all these past years._ , Xisuma thought to himself. He eyed his clone, who was currently peering down into the abyss where the creature had fallen. "...Well, don't hold back next time. I'm always happy about some help.", X finally said, turning around to continue their journey.

Other Xisuma silently nodded as he followed him, tying his hair into a tiny little ponytail. X couldn't read his expression, but he didn't particularly like it.

* * *

It turned out that 'the next time' was a few weeks later. Time passed differently in this dimension than it did in the overworld. Xisuma noticed that the other Xisuma's hair had grown out quite a way, now falling over his shoulders. He also noticed that his twin would occasionally change little details about him. His helmet visor was now tinted black, making it impossible to see trough. He liked to keep his face clean, while Xisuma didn't particularly care about a bit of beard stubble or looking scruffy. He changes his gloves, and his boots seemed heavier as well. Just minor details, but Xisuma couldn't get rid of the feeling that his counterpart did this to differentiate himself from him.

Should he have been worried about this? Probably.

Should he have talked to him? Probably.

But he didn't, because he thought it would sort itself out eventually. 

He thought it would be fine. 

They didn't have much in the Void dimension, since Xisuma couldn't bring overworld items. Everything they had, every weapon they used, was crafted here, mostly from the remains of the monsters they fought. For example the sharp, jagged sword Xisuma had given the other Xisuma.

The sword that one day, he found firmly lodged into his chest.

X sputtered, turning around his head to look at the other X. They had been chilling in their little base area, each minding their own business. However, now Other X was standing behind him, a weird curiosity on his face, his sword sticking trough Xisuma's back.

"What... are...?" X coughed, before darkness overcame him.

He startled back to live not a second later, sitting in his makeshift bed. Respawned. Disoriented, he looked around, seeing his twin a few blocks away, still looking over the XP and dust cloud that remained of where X had been standing.

"What was that all about? You killed me!"

Other X turned around, a slight smile on his face. To X's dismay, he shrugged. "Just wanted to see what would happen. I was curious, you know?", he said in the most nonchalant tone possible.

"What if i hadn't respawned! I never died here in this dimension before! You didn't know if respawn was a thing here or not, and neither did i!" He had told his clone of the overworld servers and their rules, respawning and everything. Other X had always been fascinated by it.

Right now, he shrugged again. "Well, then i would've known, right?"

"Yes, but then i also would have been dead! Jeez."

"Crikey, I didn't think you would be this salty about it." Other Xisuma closed his eyes defiantly, crossing his arms.

Xisuma was silent for a few seconds. "That's... a little _evil_ , not gonna lie. Don't... don't do that again, okay?" He rubbed his chest in the spot where the sword had been. It had felt seethingly hot. And it had hurt.

Other X didn't answer him, instead inspecting the sword in his hands. It still had a bit of blood on it. "Evil...", he repeated, rolling the word over his tongue as if to see what it tasted like.

Xisuma shuddered.

He didn't talk to Other Xisuma for the rest of the day.

He seemed busy anyways...

* * *

Eventually, Xisuma left for Hermitcraft Season 3. They played in a new, amplified world. There were more things to be build, friends to be made, fun to be had. Doc, Etho, Python, Impulse...

It had been months in the void dimension, but in the overworld servers, only about a week had passed. 

Xisuma had prepared everything for the day he wanted to leave. He had set up the portal, a little ways away from their base. He hadn't told Other X, though.

"Hey, Xisuma!", he heard him call out to him. So much for leaving secretly. "Look at what i managed to do!"

X looked up, only to see that Other Xisuma had somehow managed to dye his armor. He had messed with his player data in his limited abilities he had. It was of a bright red color now, instead of the usual green. Somehow, it made X uneasy.

"...Where are you going?", his twin promptly asked, seeing as Xisuma had his things cleaned up and his helmet put on his head. His smile fell from his face, his shoulders drooping down. "...You're going back to the overworld servers, aren't'cha."

 _Curse his quick thinking_ , X thought. "...Yes.", he then simply said. No use denying it.

Other X's face grew excited. "Can i come?" He grabbed his helmet as well, following X.

X stayed silent. He... _really_ didn't want him to come, to be honest. It wasn't that his clone was a bad person! He just had a certain... disregard for others, and Xisuma was scared that his curiosity would get the better of him and he would hurt the other hermits. Or do anything else that would bring something bad over the server. 

"...No, i'm sorry. You can't come."

Xisuma managed to slip trough the portal without another word, quickly closing it behind him. 

He felt horrible.

 _Guilty_.

He went on to the third hermitcraft server, and practically locked Other Xisuma in the void dimension.

* * *

The Other Xisuma stayed in the Eternal End at first. However, he managed to make his way onto the server, into the world.

The first time he noticed him, Xisuma was messing around with Doc's death machine, able to kill him without Doc even being close. They were just having fun with respawn. However, when Xisuma saw the name of who had killed him pop up in Chat, his blood froze.

Evil Xisuma.

He instantly knew who this was.

Evil Xisuma, that was the name that his clone chose for himself, now that he was on a server and had a username to pick. _Why 'Evil'?_

Evil Xisuma put Xisuma under a spell, trying to get him to attack the other hermits. Vengeance? Jealousy? Xisuma could only speculate. 

He failed, though, since all Xisuma did under his spell was heavily pranking the other hermits, and making a lot of work for himself. He wouldn't hurt another hermit, even when controlled by an supposedly evil spell. 

When Evil Xisuma showed up in front of X for the first time, he almost didn't recognize him. Red eyes seemed to be glowing behind his black visor. Lights? His voice was warped by the helmet, appearing much lower and darker. When he took his helmet off, he had a large scar crossing his face, spanning over his eye and crossing with another on his cheek. His hair was even longer than X remembered, and it was dyed a stark white color. 

He tried to destroy the server.

Almost managed to do so, as well, but Xisuma managed to reverse the effects by loading a backup. It made quite a few days of work for him, though. 

He wasn't mad at Evil Xisuma, though. He understood. He understood his anger, his jealousy. He couldn't hold it against him after being left alone in the Eternal End for so long.

* * *

The next time Evil X showed up, it was in season 4, the next world they had inhabited. More new people had joined them, while old friends had left.

Again, Evil Xisuma tried to destroy them. 

He had gained minions, and instructed them to wreak havoc.

Xisuma managed to stop him, repairing the server again and again.

* * *

Later in season 4, Evil X once more managed to break into the hermits world.

He summoned the withermen, turning earth into coal, trying to bring chaos to the hermits his brother had chosen over him. 

They eventually turned against him, driving him out into the woods, where he met up with Xisuma again. 

Xisuma took him in with nothing but kindness. He calmed him down, tried his best to engage a genuinely friendly conversation.

He regretted how he treated his clone. His brother. 

He offered him peace.

Evil X took it. They chopped some trees together. They defended the server against the withermen together, just like they used to fight against the end creatures together. At the end, Evil Xisuma even offered to clean up his mess, as an attempt to make amends. He seemed to come to terms that Xisuma only meant well for other people, even if he had shunned him.

However, Xisuma was double-crossed by Evil X again, as his redemption had only been a play to win his trust. He wanted to banish Xisuma, but then walked right into his own trap, trapping himself in lava and banishing himself effectively.

Xisuma didn't know how to feel about that. He knew Evil X wasn't, well, Evil. He was mostly just bored, testing out his limits, seeing how far he could go without any consequences. 

Eventually, he decided to leave Evil Xisuma to his banishment, for now. He still had his doubts about letting him roam freely on a hermitcraft server, so, with a heavy heart, he left him to his fate.

* * *

Xisuma remembered the next time he saw his clone brother. 

Evil Xisuma, at some point, managed to free himself from his banishment. He found the Season 4 server empty and bar of people, learning that the hermits had moved on again. 

Setting up elaborate portals and being instructed by a mysterious Evil voice, Evil X snuck onto the server. He met up with X, seeming friendly at first but then tricking him into being trapped in another dimension. Xisuma managed to fight trough everything that world threw at him, not unlike all the years back when he fought against the creatures in the Eternal End, alone. He got trough it, coming back to the hermitcraft server eventually. 

Evil Xisuma seemed to regret his actions. He had gotten ditched by the mysterious evil voice, for not being evil enough. He decided to be good, and to stick around Xisuma and the hermitcraftserver. X let him, as long as he didn't destroy anything.

As far as Xisuma knew, Ex met up with Wormman, and various shenanigans ensued. 

He had also gone christmas shopping with X. At the time, Xisuma thought that all was well. Evil Xisuma really seemed friendly this time around, and didn't cause any more problems for the rest of season 5.

That time, they actually got along great. They had put aside their differences from the past, and were derping around, just like the brothers they were.

* * *

This continued in season 6 as well. Xisuma noticed that Evil X had followed him onto the server, stalking him. He pulled a little prank on him, tricking him into being It in the hermit's tag game. It was all fun and games. They were both laughing about it, sounding a little stupid. 

Now, Xisuma was a bit of a prankster himself, so he had fun with roping Evil X into it. He could see where Evil Xisuma had gotten his chaotic tendencies from, although of course Ex always took it to another level and often went way over top with it. But fundamentally, they were not so different. And after Evil X had learned his lesson about being Evil, and his stunts backfiring, and how nice it was just to be friends and have fun, he had become a much more pleasant person to be around. 

Sure, his morals were still questionable, and he would often kill people when they annoyed him, knowing they would respawn. But at the end of the day, he was much more talk than action. He just wanted to appear scary and intimidating, when he really wasn't. Xisuma knew that. He had gotten to know him pretty well over the years. 

However, Evil Xisuma still had the urge to blow up things, to bring chaos and destruction. Now that he was _It_ , he had to keep to the rules of the overworld servers for the first time. Punching trees, traveling around, gathering resources and gearing up. He still wished to destroy the server, to get rid of those hermits his brother liked so much. Well, except Wormman maybe. That guy could stay. 

He had to wrangle his way trough mobs, escape from spawn Island, and then get some gear to hunt down the other hermits. To tag them. Oh and to kill them of course. But getting rid of that stupid dunce head was more important for now. 

He chased some hermits, then decided to get better gear. Apparently he had met up with Impulse, and purchased a pass to iTrade on Xisuma's bill. X later had to pay the diamonds. 

He started stealing from other hermits, taking their diamonds and emeralds, which, to be granted, X wasn't happy about. It had been a lot of trouble to get everyone their stuff back after he had found out. 

Evil Xisuma had even gone trough the trouble of mining himself. But, he still stole from all the shops. Xisuma didn't like that, at all. That was just not how things went on the hermitcraft server!

In the end, EX did manage to get proper diamond gear and an elytra, and eventually used it to hit Jevin with the tag. 

The last thing the hermits saw of him for a while was him running off into the distance, yelling "I'm free! To do what i want! And blow things up!"

After that, Xisuma didn't see him for a long while.

* * *

The hermit civil war happened, and after that, Xisuma started working more on his tower bay project. 

Evil Xisuma had occasionally sent him messages, annoying or just plain bothering him with something or another, but he hadn't shown his face in a while. However, Xisuma had constantly gotten messages from hermits reporting their stuff missing, and he just knew that Evil Xisuma was going around stealing things occasionally. He was just overall annoyed by the guy. Plus, He still wasn't quite convinced he was good this time around. There was just one backstab too much, one betrayal too many to trust him. 

So when Evil Xisuma showed up one day between tower bay and the Civil war area, yelling about blowing up things and destroying the server, it was understandable that Xisuma was just a little fed up. 

"Oh... Oh not this guy... You know what, i can't be doing with this... Now, I shoulda done this a long time ago...", he muttered to himself, keeping an eye on the red armored man running up to him as he typed in commands.

**/ban EvilXisuma**

**Evil Xisuma left the game.**

"See you later, my friend." 

He turned around, satisfied with banning him. Honestly, he just didn't want to deal with EX at the time. For all he cared, Evil X could return to the Eternal End dimension, hanging around the weird creatures he liked so much. He would be fine. Xisuma would pick him up later, maybe between seasons or something. 

He turned around and returned to his projects, not thinking any more of it.

What Xisuma didn't know, however, was that banned people did not, in fact, return to their home dimension. Instead, they were trapped inside the void, far from any server or dimension, outside of everything with no access to any world and no means of communications.

He realized that now, as his memories were coming back and he thought about EX's words. 

And when Xisuma woke back up, his immediate thought was _oh, shit_.


	24. ...and my minute's been going great.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (chapter title inspired by the song 'Birthday Party' from AJR, which goes 'I am one minute old today, and my minute's been going great.') ((also seriously please listen to AJR))
> 
> Here we are! I've been waiting for this chapter ever since i started writing.
> 
> enjoy :))

Xisuma gasped for air, opening his eyes. He was on the floor, still in the forest somewhere behind the IDEA area. His heart was beating heavily. He propped himself up, looking around. He felt disoriented. How long had he been out? Scar was next to him. He was lying on the ground, unconscious. Bdubs held him in his arms, looking up as Xisuma crawled over to them. _What happened to Evil Xisuma? Is he around somewhere?_

"Scar? Buddy?", Xisuma asked, looking down on his friend. Scar didn't move. 

"He just collapsed as you typed in that command. So did you.", Bdubs explained, his voice untypically serious. "Are you okay, Shishwammy?"

Xisumas eyes softened as he gave Bdubs a smile. "I'm alright, my friend. Looks like i got my memory back as well."

"Oh! Well thats good!"

"But... what happened to Evil Xisuma? That guy means nothing but trouble..."

"He isn't around here anywhere, as far as I know. Maybe one of the others saw him?", Bdubs answered, looking at Scar with great concern.

Xisuma nodded and took out his communicator. The newest messages were dated just two minutes back, so he couldn't have been passed out for long. Bdubs was peering over his shoulder, trying to read the chat messages as well. 

**[Xisuma: Added EvilXisuma to the whitelist]**

**Evil̸Xis͏um̶͚̦͖̗̱̼͡a̧͔̘̩̩̮̬̺̻͘͟ ̸͝͞jo̪̟͕̺̝i͉͚͙͙̭̱̝̖n̢̯̗̼͞e̛̺̹͎̦͢͜d̵̨̩̙̤ ҉̰̜̠͓͈t̷̳͙͢͟h̕͟͜͝͏͉̯̹̹̳͉ͅe̴̷̶͏̟̮͍̘̼̱̟͕ ̸͏̴̩͍͉̩̤͘ͅg̨̛̹̪̰͙͚̺̪͇͔͇͕̦̻̞̫̺͘͟͢ȃ̷̵̴̟̤̭̲͍͚̹͍̊͒͋̌ͦͬ̋͂ͮ̾̿͞m̧͌̑ͣͤ͋ͭ̓̊͐ͤ͐ͯ̊ͤ͝҉̺̦̣̜͓͓͍͚ͅę̴̴̧̫̪̥̼̬͇͉͚͔̮̮̥̜͚̺͉̘̪̝̆̿̔ͭ̉̀ͫͣͬ͞**

MumboJumbo: oh!

ZombieCleo: uhh guys?

8̶̛͏Sca̡҉̷ŗ̷̴̢̕X̶i̷̴̕vo̴̴̷i̷d҉͢ : Good news! i got my memory back!

8̶̛͏Sca̡҉̷ŗ̷̴̢̕X̶i̷̴̕vo̴̴̷i̷d҉͢ : uh oh

Xisuma frowned at the strange, garbled mess that had once been his username. His eyebrows went up higher and higher, soon disappearing behind the edge of his helmet entirely. _What is this??_

However, he had no time to think about this, as the feeling of an axe splitting his armor and lodging itself firmly into his chest, just below his shoulder, distracted him. He cried out, struggling backwards, and promptly fell over as he tripped on a root on the forest floor. Pain shot trough him. His communicator clattered to the floor, and he saw the face of a vindicator looming over him as he looked up. The pillager reached for his axe, to tear it out of Xisumas shoulder and strike again, but the admin threw himself to the side to avoid him. 

"Xisuma!!", he hear Bdubs yell out, followed by the sound of crossbow arrows hitting their target. "Ow!!"

Xisuma hissed in pain when the axe moved slightly in his wound. Rolling on his back, he grabbed the handle of the axe and tore it out in a swift movement, the pain spike almost making him pass out. Blood started to pour out of the wound, but X tried his best to get back to his feet, the axe in his hand. He caught a glimpse of Bdubs, who had dropped Scar to fight off several other pillagers with axes and crossbows. He had taken out his sword additionally to his own axe in his other hand and was shouting incoherently, obviously trying to lure them away from the unconscious Scar. 

The vindicator that had attacked him came back into Xisumas view, so he tried to focus on getting out of his reach. Gritting his teeth, he made a few steps to the left, but bumped into another Pillager. 

"Oh for the love of-...!" He ducked to narrowly evade a crossbow bolt, hearing it sink itself into a tree behind him. However, he couldn't escape the vindicator, who bashed into him at full speed, knocking him over and making him fall onto his back. Xisuma saw dark splotches in his vision as he tried to catch his breath, his shoulder throbbing painfully. He had troubles lifting his arm, so he switched the axe to his offhand, just in time to block the vindicator's next punch. Even without his weapon, the pillager could muster quite a lot of strength, and Xisuma was struggling to keep him away from himself. 

Xisuma inadvertently yelped when another crossbow bolt burrowed itself into his leg, making him lose his focus and letting the vindicator land a punch directly onto his helmet. Stars were dancing in front of him. The vindicator bore down on him, punching his helmet again and making X's head being thrashed sideways. He was heavy, as well, and Xisuma struggled and squirmed to get any point of advantage. It wasn't of much use, though. Suddenly, the weight of the vindicator was lifted off of him as Bdubs barreled into him and tore him off of the admin. 

"Xisuma! I'm gonna lead these fools away and deal with them! Try to get Scar somewhere safe, alright?"

"Y-Yeah...", X agreed, still dazed. Blood was dripping from his shoulder, and he pressed a hand against the gash. Stupid him, wearing an elytra instead of his chestplate. Then again, he couldn't possibly have anticipated this. The remaining pillagers, including the one who had shot at him, turned to follow Bdubs, who ran further away into the woods, yelling and shouting the entire time. Xisuma took a second to breathe, then closed his hand around the bolt in his leg. Finding no pleasant way to do this, he just yanked at it. He winced at the pain, feeling blood seep out of the wound already. He let the bolt clatter to the floor, then struggled to sit up. His vision was swimming. Was his helmet working correctly? He idly fiddled with the settings, finding them all pretty much in place. Some were ever so slightly off since amnesiac X had had no idea what he was doing, but Xisuma disregarded it since he had bigger problems. 

He stayed on all fours, crawling over to Scar a few blocks away. Despite his panicked state of mind, he managed to pick up his communicator when he saw it lying on the ground. Really wouldn't do him any good if he left it now. Scar was still unconscious. Xisuma could see red staining his white shirt under his leather coat. Had he gotten hurt as well?

The admin carefully pulled away the coat from Scar's shoulder, the fabric slipping trough his fingers several times. His eyes widened as he saw a decently sized gash across Scar's shoulder/chest. He stared at it blankly. After a few minutes, he registered that the cut was in exactly the same place as the one on his own right shoulder.

_Ah._

_Right._

Apparently _that_ was still a thing.

The cut wasn't bleeding as profusely as his own injury, and it didn't seem as deep, but it was definitely more than a bruise. Had their connection gotten stronger? Concerned, Xisuma wrapped his non-injured, left arm around Scar's chest, hoisting him up by his armpits while trying not to further injure his shoulder. It was a lot to keep in mind, considering he barely managed to stand up without his knees feeling like butter. X quickly looked around himself. He could still hear fighting noises and Pillager grunting, so he started moving in the opposite direction of where Bdubs had lead the mobs away from them. Dragging Scar with him, his feet scraping across the dirt floor, Xisuma made his way further into the forest.

His vision kept blurring, and his breath grew labored under the added weight of Scar. Spruce trees turned into a blur, and only the faint noises of crossbows firing and Bdubs yelling kept Xisuma going. Blood was dripping from his shoulder, seeping under his armor.

_Cover. I need cover._

He had to get Scar somewhere safe, somewhere the pillagers and other mobs couldn't reach. Xisuma reached into his pockets for food, to get a little strength back, to get at least a little healing going on. However, his hands came up empty, his food supplies already empty. He briefly wished for an enderchest, but was distracted when his feet couldn't keep up and he tripped, sending him and Scar barreling down a slope. They ended up crashing against a spruce tree. X groaned, his head spinning. He took long, deep breaths, keeping his eyes closed until the dizzyness subsided a little. However, he felt darkness creeping up on the edge of his consciousness, so he forced himself to open his eyes again and looked around.

Scar was a few blocks away from him, so Xisuma struggled to get himself up and crawled over to Scar, once again slinging his left arm around him. 

Dragging his feet onward and onward, he kept to his right a little bit. Good thing was, he couldn't hear any fighting noises anymore, so he must've gotten away from the pillagers for now. He came across a small valley with a few ponds of water in it, getting his feet wet as he stumbled into them. Nothing that provided cover, though. Xisuma did his best to stay focused, but it was increasingly harder to do so. He felt light-headed and weak, and a quick check on his health told him he only had one and a half hearts left. This was further diminished when he tripped upon a sweet berry bush, scratching up his feet and shins pretty badly. 

"Ow... ow... ah, stupid...", he yelped, stumbling backwards to get away from the painful thorns. He hissed at the pain, trying his best not to drop Scar. X hoisted the builder up onto his shoulder more with great effort, then made his way around the bushes up a small hill. Fern was waving softly in the breeze, but the additional movement made him nauseous, so he focused on setting one foot in front of the other. It felt like it was getting colder a little bit. Xisuma could hear his own breathing, amplified by his helmet. All other sounds were blurring together into an indiscernible mess, clouding his brain. His vision was getting more and more foggy, as well. He could make out some blinding brightness in front of him, and steered towards it, putting his last energies into clambering up the next hill. 

A large, flat area opened up in front of him, covered in stark white snow. It was so bright, X had to raise his arm a little to cover his eyes, making him flinch in pain as the wound on his shoulder ached. His other arm was still gripping Scar, although he felt his grip get weaker. He shortly scanned the area, barely able to make out any featured in the blurry white landscape. However, he noticed the very hill he was standing on was cut off at the other side, and behind a small frozen puddle there was just the tiniest overhang. Sweet. A place with a bit of cover, finally. He was painfully aware that staying in a cold area like this wasn't exactly ideal, but he also didn't have much strength left and he would rather not drag Scar around for much longer. So, Xisuma started making his way down the hill as carefully as he could, leaving a trail of blood drops in the previously untouched snow. 

After slipping around the ice, he finally made it into the overhang cave safely. It was a tiny space, maybe 3 blocks deep and only 2-3 blocks wide at the most, but X let out a relieved sigh as he let himself slide down at the far back wall of the cave. He carefully put Scar down next to him. His face seemed pale, sweaty.

"Scar.... Scar...?"

Xisuma put a hand on Scar's forehead to check his temperature, but he only left bloody smears all over it. He was wearing gloves, anyways, he noted. He couldn't even check his temperature if he wanted to, because he was wearing gloves. For some reason that detail was really funny to him right now. It was less funny, though, when he moved his shoulder a bit further and a new wave of pain bit into him. 

_Right. Maybe i should check my own.... injuries first..._

Thinking was exhausting. He twisted his head to see the gash on his shoulder, but between his helmet blocking the view and his green armor, there wasn't really much he could see. X grumbled, raising his numb fingers to clumsily tear off the green shoulder protection of his armor. It clattered to the floor, but all noises mashed together into an unidentifiable hum. His eyelids felt heavy. 

He did his best to shake it off. Instead, he took out his communicator. There were several things he really needed to attend to, now that he had his memories and therefore admin knowledge back. He saw unread chat messages and opened up the group chat first. The screen was small on the device, and all the words blurred together into an useless grey lump. He squinted, but the screen seemingly kept spinning. One message that plopped up, he could just about make out. Mostly because it was written bold.

**BdoubleO100 was slain by Vindicator.**

"Oh no...", X muttered, closing his eyes to stop the incessant spinning. 

He then opened them again, switching to the admin panel on his communicator to make the holographic screens plop up in front of him. He had to get to the bottom of this. Why was his name all garbled? What happened to Evil X? Was Bdubs okay? More of habit then of conscious decision he switched into the server log, starting to scroll up. Numbers and text flew past him, meaningless gibberish to his tired brain. Dark spots started dancing in his vision. He felt very far removed from everything, almost floating. Nothing he saw on his screens actually entered his brain in any form of meaningful information. His hands slipped, his communicator falling to the floor and the admin screens dissipating. Blood was smeared across the device. He was tired. 

_No! I can't pass out now! What if there's still.... still mobs out there...? I need to... protect Scar..._

He took out his sword instead, propping himself up into a crouching position. The sword was more heavy than usual in his hands, the tip resting on the ground. He had to use his left hand, though, because every movement of his right was making the pain in his shoulder worsen tenfold and caused another few drips of blood to fall down. There was a lot of it on the ground already, if he thought about it. He blankly stared at the small red pool on the floor. Was the world tilting sideways? Everything was so blurry and distant. Was he still holding onto his sword? He couldn't really tell. The orange-tinted sky light outside of the little overhang seemed so, so far away. Everything was moving so fast!

His vision was in a constant sideways tilt, falling and spinning and moving, with black dots creeping up on the edges. The ground felt comforting beneath his head.

He closed his eyes. 

_Just...._

_...just for a second..._


	25. Iskall catches up with the past five days / SOMEONE can't turn their capslock off

Iskall was startled awake by a sudden spike of pain.

He was hurt, confused, didn't know where he was, and, worst of all, he had a splitting headache. And his shoulder hurt. A lot. 

"Ow? What in the world?!", he yelped, gripping his shoulder in pain as he shot up into a sitting position. This made his head spin, and his chest hurt, and the memory of a ghast fireball coming straight at him plopped up in his mind, and then his head collided with something hard.

"OW! Iskall?!"

Iskall was bouced back, and whining, he sank back into the pillows, rubbing his forehead. His other hand noticed bandages wrapped around him, and felt something wet soaking trough near his shoulder. He brought it up to his face, and tried to focus his confused, blurry vision on it. Blood smears? He felt his cybernetic eye whirring to life as it booted up after being asleep. Respawning? Had he been sleeping??

It was all a bit much.

"Iskall! Oh my word, what is going on?"

Now _that_ voice was very familiar. 

Iskall blinked a few times and looked around to get his bearings. Sure enough, the trusted mustached face of Mumbo was hovering over him. "Mumbo?"

"You're awake!" Mumbo was overjoyed. Sure enough, in the next second, Iskall was caught in a crushingly tight embrace.

"Ow, ow... Mumbo, you're hurting me!" As much as he appreciated his friend and his concern, it really _did_ hurt. His shoulder was wrenched at an awkward angle, and the injury - however he may have gotten it - was sending waves of pain trough his system. He winced, drawing a grimace as Mumbo promptly pulled back from him and he had to move his shoulder again, even if just to relax it. Looking at it, blood was seeping trough the bandages. 

"I... wait, why are you bleeding? Did your ghast wound get worse again? But we were so careful when wrapping it!" Mumbo seemed just as confused as he was. "What were you thinking, going into the nether alone! Oh, False brought your stuff, it's over he-"

"Mumbo, stop, _stop_! I can't keep up!", Iskall begged of him. "What is going on? Where am I?"

Mumbo stopped in his tracks, interrupting his rambling. "Ah, right. Sorry about that."

Iskall took a moment to breathe, then sat up properly this time, without bashing his head against Mumbo's. Alright. Good. This was fine. After he took a moment to relax and adjust, his head stopped spinning and he could now take in his enviroment. He was back at Grian's base, in the 'hospital floor' as it had apparently been dubbed. Beds were scattered all around the floor, with pillows, blankets, and other miscellaneous items littering the floor. The bed Iskall was in was the closest to the windowed wall. 

So far, so good. 

Iskall looked at his hands, patting his chest in memory of the painful ghast death he had experienced. The front of his chest still strained a little bit, but under all these bandages it seemed mostly healed. Iskall saw a few bottles of potions on top of a chest next to his bed, as well as some shulker boxes next to it. He could only assume they were full of potions as well. Seemed like the hermits had, as usual, gone overboard on trying to help him. Iskall couldn't help but smile softly. 

Other than his bandaged chest, he seemed mostly fine, save for the pain that was emitting from his shoulder. His headache was getting a little better now that he was sitting up. With clumsy fingers, Iskall started to pry off the bandages. 

"Oh, need help with that?"

"I... yeah. I wanna see what is going on with that."

Mumbo helped him with the bandages, soon resorting to using shears as scissors. Why he had them in his inventory, Iskall didn't know. Better not ask any questions about Mumbos inventory. They worked quietly for a few moments, revealing the sore skin and mostly healed burn marks on his chest first. Then, they got to his shoulder. As they were untangling the woolen bandages, Iskall suddenly stopped as he noticed something. 

"Mumbo..." He turned his head, looking Mumbo in the eyes, who now stopped as well.

"Everything all right? Besides... that, of course." He gesticulated with the bloody bandages. 

"Mumbo, my brain isn't weird anymore!" 

Mumbo smirked disbelievingly and opened his mouth, obviously to give a snarky answer in return, but then his eyes fell onto Iskalls shoulder as the last bandages slipped off.

Iskall looked down as well, his next sentence getting caught in his throat as he saw a large wound on his shoulder. It was about a hand's width long, looking a bit like a very short sword gash. Blood was oozing out of it, now that the bandages had come off. 

"Sheesh. Where did that come from?", Iskall asked, drawing a face at the unpleasant sight. 

Mumbo frowned, dumping the bandages on the floor. "I don't know. That wasn't there when you respawned." He stared at the wound for a second, then quickly looked away and opened the shulker box instead. "Here, take this."

Iskall accepted the potions Mumbo gave him without resistance, and quickly downed both a health and a regen potion. For good measure, he stuffed his face with some Golden Carrots Mumbo handed him as well. His injuries slowly closed up and started to fade, the gash on his shoulder soon turning up into only a scabbed scratch. He carefully moved his arm, testing out if it would hurt. It did, a little, but It was way better than before. He was sure the remaining marks would fade within the next day or so.

Now that that was sorted out, Iskall stared at his hands. What had happened to him?

He tried to pierce his scattered memory together. Everything was kind of blurry. He clearly remembered meeting up with Mumbo, and then going to work on R.U.N. redstone, but everything after that was super hazy. He died, so much he was sure of. But after that?

He also had vague images of the... other memories in his head. The one that hadn't been his own. Thinking of the end left a strong sense of deja-vu, for example. What did that mean? The foreign memories seemed to be mostly... well, gone out of his brain, for the lack of a better word. He didn't have a constant onslaught of information rushing trough his thoughts at all time, and he actually managed to think clearly now, and retrospect on what he had seen. 

He couldn't quite remember it all, now that the actual imagery was gone. It was more like a faint dream, or a movie he had seen years ago. He remembered wandering trough the end, fighting weird... creatures? Xisuma's face was in his mind, but without scars and without his signature helmet.

Xisuma? 

He was confused. What about Xisuma? There was something about the admin that he was definitely forgetting...? Didn't he talk to him yesterday? 

Actually, yesterday? 

Iskall looked outdoors. The sun was starting to set, it was getting late. Hadn't he gone out in the morning? He remembered sun shining on his face.

"Hey Mumbo, what day is it? I... I'm not sure what happened. I think i went into the nether at some point, no?"

Mumbo, who had been patiently waiting for him to catch his thoughts and say anything, started fiddling with his mustache, something he always did when he was uncomfortable. 

"When we woke up yesterday morning, you were gone. None of us knew where you went, and you just... left us a really concerning and not very useful message." Mumbo sighed. "Grian and False went looking for you, but couldn't find you. Then, all of the sudden, you respawned here, but not in your own bed, but on Xisuma's. It was... really weird. You were also really hurt." He pointed towards Iskalls chest. "False brought all of your items she could find, and we read in chat that you died to a ghast. You were mostly unconscious since then... We gave you some potions at some point, but you've slept trough the entire day yesterday and most of today."

Iskall was silent for a second. "Huh. That's.... wow." No wonder he felt so horrible. He took a second to look around the room once more, noticing it was mostly empty. "Where are the others? What else is happening right now?"

"Uhm... Scar is apparently posessed by Evil Xisuma, normal Xisuma still doesn't have his memory back, and both of them are taking a tour to IDEA with Bdubs and Keralis today. Cub is downstairs, working on figuring out how to help X with the admin stuff."

"Ah, i see." Iskall absent-mindedly rubbed his shoulder. "Wait, what do you mean Scar is possessed by Evil Xisuma? Where did that guy come from?"

"Well they have this theory, that uhm..." Mumbo trailed off as he was checking his communicator, seeing that he had missed... a lot since Iskall woke up.

"Oh dear."

"Mumbo? What is it, dude?"

Mumbo just handed Iskall his own communicator.

**[Xisuma: Added EvilXisuma to the whitelist]**

**Evil̸Xis͏um̶͚̦͖̗̱̼͡a̧͔̘̩̩̮̬̺̻͘͟ ̸͝͞jo̪̟͕̺̝i͉͚͙͙̭̱̝̖n̢̯̗̼͞e̛̺̹͎̦͢͜d̵̨̩̙̤ ҉̰̜̠͓͈t̷̳͙͢͟h̕͟͜͝͏͉̯̹̹̳͉ͅe̴̷̶͏̟̮͍̘̼̱̟͕ ̸͏̴̩͍͉̩̤͘ͅg̨̛̹̪̰͙͚̺̪͇͔͇͕̦̻̞̫̺͘͟͢ȃ̷̵̴̟̤̭̲͍͚̹͍̊͒͋̌ͦͬ̋͂ͮ̾̿͞m̧͌̑ͣͤ͋ͭ̓̊͐ͤ͐ͯ̊ͤ͝҉̺̦̣̜͓͓͍͚ͅę̴̴̧̫̪̥̼̬͇͉͚͔̮̮̥̜͚̺͉̘̪̝̆̿̔ͭ̉̀ͫͣͬ͞**

MumboJumbo: oh!

ZombieCleo: uhh guys?

8̶̛͏Sca̡҉̷ŗ̷̴̢̕X̶i̷̴̕vo̴̴̷i̷d҉͢ : Good news! i got my memory back!

8̶̛͏Sca̡҉̷ŗ̷̴̢̕X̶i̷̴̕vo̴̴̷i̷d҉͢ : uh oh

Docm77: xisuma? waht is happening???

FalseSymmetry: Guys?

Grian: UHM

Keralis1: shishwammy??

**BdoubleO100 was slain by Vindicator.**

Keralis1: Bubbles??!!

FalseSymmetry: x where are you? 

FalseSymmetry: i'm coming over

Grian: mumbo we're coming back

Docm77: Xisuma???

Mumbo started typing quickly, while Iskall was still trying to figure out what exactly he was looking at.

MumboJumbo: at least iskall woke back up

MumboJumbo: he seems mostly fine

T̡͜im͘͝͠es̡E̴̕v̛͝҉il҉s̛͢ưI̵͏s͏: yep! im all good

T̡͜im͘͝͠es̡E̴̕v̛͝҉il҉s̛͢ưI̵͏s͏: oh

A cold feeling ran down Iskalls spine as he read his messed up username. "Well that can't be good.", he muttered, while Mumbo was looking at him in shock.

Both of them were startled when rocket sounds quickly came closer, and Grian all but barreled into the room, closely followed by Doc. The two of them violently skidded to an halt near Mumbo and Iskall. 

"Guys, I think we have more problems than before.", Grian was waving his communicator, and Mumbo and Iskall nodded. "Iskall! You're back!" At least Grian's concerned face turned into a smile when he saw his friend awake.

Iskall gave him a confused thumbs up. "Not sure what is happening, but yes."

Doc was checking the chat again, still waiting on any updates from Xisuma, Scar, or any of the others.

Docm77: x, coords?

FalseSymmetry: i'm leaving now, going to IDEA first

Cubfan135: Scar? Bdubs? Xisuma? Keralis? 

Cubfan135: what is going on?

Cubfan135: also, where is evil xisuma now?

* * *

"Man, i sure hope Grian's able to find out anything.", Tango said, his hands crossed behind his head.

"Yeah, with everything that's going on things are getting pretty weird around the server.", Impulse agreed. 

Zedaph turned around to his friends, giving them a cheering smile. "I'm sure it will be fine! It always is eventually, right?"

The trio was walking around together, after they had split off from Sherlock Grian and Doc Wattson. They had left them near Sahara, but neither of the three of them felt like going back to their bases alone, so they were just hanging out, wandering around the area. Not particularly caring where they went, they had passed trough the entire modern district and were currently trodding around the G-Team base.

"What do you think happened there?" Tango asked, staring into a fire nearby. The field was still littered with destruction, explosion holes, and the ever burning fires that told of the chaos that had unravelled here. Compared to the current situation, that had all been in good fun though, since everyone had been on the same page about it. Now weird things were happening, and stuff that no one could influence was going on, and no one knew what to make of it. It wasn't good. 

Impulse shrugged, wandering on over the field, looking to the far towers of his ghast cannon. "I dunno. Sounds like Grian and Doc were asking everyone what they were doing."

"They'd tell us if they would've found out anything, right?", Zedaph asked. 

"Yeah, I'm sure they would. Will." Tango sighed, closing up to his friends. He decided they all needed a break and a distraction. "Hey Impulse, ya think your ghast cannon is still up and running?"

Impulse side-eyed him, then smiled. "Why don't we find out? The ghasts shouldn't have despawned."

Excited, the three of them started jogging towards the STAR team base. 

"Last one there gets a pie to the face!" Zedaph yelled before breaking into a full sprint.

"Hey, hold on! No fair!", Tango complained, although he was laughing. Both of the others knew that this was in no way a empty threat, and so they did their best to keep up with their friend.

However, they soon all skidded to an halt, bumping into each other, as they saw someone move out of the corner of their eyes.

There, on the beach next to the wall that separated the Civil War zone from Tower Bay, someone was lying in the sand. Someone wearing red under their diamond gear. 

Now, there were not a lot of hermits who had a lot of red on them. Phython and Biffa had left the server a while ago, so it couldn't be them. That left them with Ren, who had indeed a red shirt. And Grian with his signature red sweater. But Grian had earlier been wearing his sherlock outfit, and it hadn't been too long since they parted ways. 

So...

"Evil Xisuma? Is that _you_?", Zedaph questioned as they came closer to the figure. He could barely believe his eyes.

" **Ughh...** " The person propped themselves up, shaking their helmeted head as they sat up. Sure enough, that couldn't be anyone else than Evil Xisuma. He looked around, seeming a little dazed, before his eyes fell on the three of them. His voice was distorted by his helmet, sounding dark, and he slurred his words together as if he just woke up. " **Uh, who are you guys?** "

Tango cautiously swapped to his sword, standing back and watching Evil X intently. Impulse and Zedaph however, who had both previously met with him, took a step closer. 

"I'm Impulse. I sold you a pass to iTrade, remember?" Impulse was still cautious, though. They all read the messages in chat. They saw 'Scar' killing his best friend, Cub. They all read Doc and Cub explaining their theory about Scar being possessed by EX, so it wasn't _that_ much of a surprise to see the man in person. 

"What are you doing here, Evil Xisuma?" Zedaph asked, offering him a hand to help him up. 

"Zed! Don't get to close!", Tango hissed, worried about his friend. 

To no one's surprise, EX swatted Zeds hand away and staggered to his feet by himself, needing a second to balance himself. He then stared at them again. His red eyes glowing behind his black visor seemed to pierce trough them, and his gaze lingered on Zedaph. 

" **...You seem familiar.** ", he finally brought out. " **I feel like i know your voice from somewhere...** "

Zedaph was confused as to where EX would know him from for a second, but then started to get nervous as he remembered. "Uhh, you must be thinking about someone else! Never met with you before. Nope."

Evil X kept mustering him, silently, then stepped closer until he was right up in his face. " **You sound like.... No, no, that can't be...** ", he muttered, thoughtful. He absent-mindedly touched his shoulder, flinching slightly. " **Wormman??** "

"What!! Nooooo that can't be!!" Zedaph answered in his best attempt to sound genuine. 

Impulse and Tango both stopped their glaring at Evil Xisuma to side-eye him, clearly able to tell he was lying. They didn't say anything, though.

"I must say, I am flattered you compare me to this great Hero, but Wormman is merely a good friend of mine. No other relation.", Zed tried to talk his way out.

Evil Xisuma leaned back in surprise. " **Ohh what, really? That's amazing!** " He sounded genuinely impressed. " **Do you think you could, maybe, I don't know, tell him I'm here? Or invite him over? Maybe I can get his-...** "

"Not interrupt you...", Impulse interrupted them, loudly clearing his throat, trying to get EX's attention. "But do you mind telling us why you are here?" 

"Yeah, you're not exactly the most trustworthy of people." Tango butted in. He was still carrying his sword in hand, although he didn't raise it at him. 

Evil Xisuma stood still for a second, looking back and forth between the two of them. " **Well he said i am.** " He pointed to Impulse. " **Anyways, I'm here because that idiot Xisuma finally unbanned me! Now i am-...** " He froze mid-sentence, remembering something. " **Wait, where's Xisuma?** "

"What do you mean?"

" **Xisuma! If he unbanned me, why is he not here to talk to me! He's got a lot of explaining to do!** " Upset, EX started to look for his communicator. He opened up the lower part of his helmet, without lowering his visor, and angrily stuffed a few golden carrots into his mouth, then snapped it shut again and focused his attention on the chat. 

Impulse, Tango and Zedaph looked at their new messages as well. 

"Well, Xisuma is all the way over in New Hermitville.", Impulse started explaining. "He was going out to I-.... Oh.... Oh, no..."

For once, all four of them agreed as they read trough the recent chat messages. 

Cubfan135: Scar? Bdubs? Xisuma? Keralis?

Cubfan135: what is going on?

Cubfan135: also, where is evil xisuma now?

iJevin: has anyone seen him? 

iJevin: i think it would be... good if we knew what happened to him

"Oh dear." Zed simply said, at a loss for words.

Evil Xisuma began furiously typing into the chat, trying to get word from Xisuma.

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: ∴⍑ᒷ∷ᒷ ╎ᓭ ̇/╎ᓭ⚍ᒲᔑ?

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: ∴ᔑ╎ℸ ̣

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: WHERE IS XISUMA

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: ANSWER ME

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: ALSO WHY IS MY NAME ALL WEIRD?

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: JEEZ

Docm77: who is this? 

Docm77: i can't read your name

Cubfan135: Scar is that you?

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: IM GOING

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: TELL ME COORDS

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: NOW

T̡͜im͘͝͠es̡E̴̕v̛͝҉il҉s̛͢ưI̵͏s͏: hello?

T̡͜im͘͝͠es̡E̴̕v̛͝҉il҉s̛͢ưI̵͏s͏: rude

Grian: we dont have coords

Docm77: what do you think we are trying to figure out?

Cubfan135: scar if that is you please say so

Cubfan135: are you and x okay?

Docm77: Keralis? Bdubs?

Keralis1: bubbles just respawned

Keralis1: he ran off into the forest again!

Keralis1: im gonna go after him and try to find shishwammy and scar

"Wow, got your allcaps stuck there buddy?", Impulse asked Evil Xisuma, halfheratedly joking, as he read the chat, but his brows were drawn together in worry as no one seemed to be able to get a response from Scar and Xisuma. 

"Yeeeaaah I don't think all of that shouting is necessary.", Zedaph agreed.

Evil Xisuma growled deeply, fed up with the hermits and their constant jabbering. He roughly shoved his communicator back into his pocket, taking out his diamond sword from his inventory. Thankfully it was still how it had been before he had been banned from the server. 

"Whoah whoah, easy there!" Tango took a step back from EX, raising his own sword. "What are you doing there, partner?"

" **I'm going to find him. Out of my way.** " 

"Wait-...!"

Evil Xisuma hastily made his way trough the group of the three of them, shoving them to the side as he broke into a sprint. His sight was set on Tower Bay, where he would surely find a nether portal to get to Xisuma. 

And make him talk.

* * *

TangoTek: guys, we found Evil Xisuma

TangoTek: he was the one texting earlier

TangoTek: he's on his way to X i think

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mumbo: sir, you've been in a coma for the past one and a half days  
> Iskall: oh boy, i can't wait to see my friends happy and healthy and have no problems with my username whatsoever!


	26. Scar is missing Jellie, among other things. Jellie is missing Scar, and a warm and peaceful place to sleep.

Scar was suffering under a weird, broken dream. Colors and shapes were flowing past his eyes, impossible to comprehend, glitching and twitching until his brain hurt. Distorted sounds were repeating and overlapping each other, and he couldn't tell up from down. His body hurt, his eyes hurt, his ears hurt. He had a hard time even registering his hands when he put them in front of his face, and every movement only made it worse. Red streaks were falling in front of his vision. Pain was boring trough his shoulder, making it impossible to think about anything else. 

The feeling of pain was getting more and more intense, swallowing the rest of his weird dreams, until it finally go so overwhelming that his consciousness finally returned to the waking world. 

Scar whined as he came around, immediately blinking to see what was going on. He saw a dimly lit dirt ceiling. 

_What is going on? Where am i, how did i get here? What happened? Didn't Xisuma unban Evil X? Where is everyone? Why am i in a cave? Where is Jellie? Are the others okay?_

He quickly started to panic, sitting up sharply. 

He cried out as his shoulder strained at the movement. His head was spinning, he was feeling more than a little dazed. How long had he been out? Was he still possessed? _Did.... Did Evil Xisuma make me kill anyone else??_

Scar took a few long, shaky breaths, then looked down at himself first. Blood was soaking his shirt at his right shoulder, and when he pushed his coat aside he saw a gash just above his chest. 

_What? How? What happened?_

Checking his health bar, he saw that he had only lost two hearts. Which was.... weird, considering his injury. He didn't find any food in his inventory, though.

But that could wait anyways. The wound was bleeding a little bit, but apparently it had already started closing up and wasn't too bad. 

"Xisuma?", Scar asked hesitantly into the room. His eyes had started adjusting to the darkness, and he could now roughly make out his surroundings. 

He was in a tiny cave, or rather just a small overhang. Outside were water pools and ice blocks, and it was pretty much night already. Scar could see the faintest shimmer of the red sunset fading near the horizon. There was nothing much in this cave, except himself - and Xisuma. 

Xisuma was laying sprawled out next to him, his face on the floor. His sword was lying carelessly dropped a few blocks away. To his horror, Scar realized that a pool of blood had spread out under Xisuma. 

"Xisuma?! Xisuma!!", he cried out, reaching over to the admin to touch him lightly. He didn't move.

"Oh god, no..." Scar moved over to Xisuma, trying to see what was wrong without disturbing him too much. He couldn't see much, though, with X lying on his stomach. His green armor was a little beat up, and Scar saw a small injury on his leg, but whatever was bleeding so much must have been on his front. 

_His shoulder, probably_. Scar remembered the events from just a while prior. Minutes? Hours? A day? What had happened to Xisuma after he had passed out?

He carefully threaded his arms underneath Xisumas chest and tried to heave him onto his back. He was _heavy_ , though. Scar soon resorted to just rolling him over sideways. One of his shoulder pads was missing, and Scar finally saw the huge wound on his shoulder. He was shocked at the sight, freezing up for a second as dread spread trough him. The injury was still seeping out blood, a small trickle now, but Scar still gasped as he saw it. _And there is so much of it on the floor, and his armor, and his arms...! That can't be good._

"Xisuma... Xisuma?" Scar tried it again. 

X had his eyes closed, thoroughly unconscious. His face looked a little bruised as well. The admin really wasn't looking good. He was appearing pale and sickly, as far as Scar could tell beneath the purple visor. 

"Oh god, oh no... what do i do...", Scar muttered feverishly, rummaging trough his inventory again. No food, no enderchest, he didn't even have a weapon because he left them all behind with Cub!

"Oh this is not good..." Scar quickly pocketed Xisuma's sword, then slipped out of his dress-shirt and started tearing off strips to use them as bandages. He balled up a good amount of them to put them on Xisuma's wound to stop the bloodflow, applying pressure. Then, he used the rest of them to tie everything together, making sure the 'bandage' was as tightly wrapped around Xisumas shoulder as possible. It wasn't the prettiest, and it probably wouldn't hold together for very long, but at least as long as X wasn't moving it should help a little bit. 

Seeing as the admin was still unconscious, that didn't seem to be a concern for now. 

Scar sighed shakily, wiping a bit of sweat from his forehead. He hoisted Xisuma up by gripping onto his chestplate, moving him up a few centimeters until he could prop up his torso against the dirt wall of the cave. X's head rolled slightly to the side, his helmet scraping across the back wall of the cave.

_What now?_

The realization that he should probably contact the others hit him like scalding water. He wiped the blood off his hands on his pants, then reached into his coat pocket for his communicator. 

_It wasn't there._

Growing more and more frantic, Scar check every single pocket he had on his body, then did it again as he couldn't find the small device. He even accessed his inventory in his panic, knowing full well that the chat device couldn't possibly in there. That was just how the world worked. 

_Where did it go?_ He looked around the floor or the little cave, not seeing anything useful. He checked his coat pocket again, his nails scraping against the pocket dirt that had gathered at the very bottom. Still empty. 

"How could i lose my communicator...?", Scar muttered, disappointed in himself. 

Just what had happened while he had been out? How did Xisuma get so hurt? And, more importantly, where were they? Without his comm, he couldn't even check his coordinates.

More importantly, he couldn't call for help.

Peering outside, he could just about make out a snowy landscape and some trees and dirt cliffs. Not very helpful. Were there any snow biomes near New Hermitville? He _really_ didn't want to leave Xisuma and check it out.

Scar could now hear mobs in the distance, Zombies grunting and bones rattling. It was pitch black by now, and he could only see a little due to the glow of their enchanted gear. He really hoped the mobs wouldn't stumble across their little shelter. The builder noticed it was getting colder and colder as well, and he drew his coat closely around himself to protect himself a little bit. He glanced over to Xisuma, then sighed again as he took off his coat and draped it across the man instead. He could use it better than him right now, since he would lose body heat much quicker. He already felt uncomfortably cool as Scar touched his arm. 

Scar involuntarily shuddered as a breeze of cold wind bit into his barely protected body, now missing his leather coat and the shirt he had torn apart to make the bandages. He was only wearing a plain white T-shirt now, and his elytra, which didn't provide much extra warmth either, even as he pulled it around his shoulders tighter. He flinched as fabric was dragged across the cut in his shoulder. His shirt had red spreading out from the wound.

Shivering and with clattering teeth, Scar accessed his inventory again. Still no food or enderchest, but he took out a few stray dirt blocks he still had and started plugging up the cave entrance. He was just a few blocks short, so he finished the job with a spruce log and two pieces of netherrack he had apparently held onto. Immediately, the wind stopped and Scar relaxed a little, but they were also now entrenched in complete darkness. He didn't have any torches on him, but a bunch of sea lanterns. He plopped some down in the cave, but then put all of them away save for one in the middle since their light was quite blinding. Sadly, the soft ripples of light didn't provide much warmth. The block was about body temperature. _Better than nothing, I guess..._ , Scar thought as he huddled around the lantern, staying close to Xisuma as well. 

He felt miserable. Xisuma was hurt, he didn't know where he was, he was cold and hungry, and he had no idea what happened. Scar remembered passing out shortly after he had gotten himself shot with an arrow to prove his pain-sharing theory. The cut in his shoulder told him that was still a thing. He had been in the void again, in Evil Xisuma's body. He realized it now; the red armor, it all made sense. It had been maybe 5 to 10 minutes before he returned, finding Xisuma in the process of unbanning Evil X. After that, things got a bit weird. He remembered standing next to X, watching him type and hitting enter. 

The next second, darkness. 

Then, the glitchy dreams he had. Thinking of it, he was still a bit distraught at the memory. 

_What happened? Did the unbanning work? Is Evil Xisuma on the server now?_

Scar could only assume that at least _something_ had happened when X sent that command. He didn't wake up in EX's body in the void again, neither did he pass out randomly since he had woken up, so that was a start...

_Also, where is Jellie? She was in my arms when X did the unban, right?_

He curled together into a tight ball, resting his chin on his knees. The worry overwhelmed him, and tears started forming in his eyes. He really missed the soft fur of his cat, her warmth calming him down whenever he needed it. Where was she? Was she okay? Scar really just hoped that she ran away when whatever happened had started. Was she still in the spruce forest? All alone? Would she find her way back to him?

Scar sniffled and wiped his nose on the fabric of his pants. It was all a bit much. 

He looked over to Xisuma. Xisuma, who was always there for everyone. He often had his own base away from the others, and was wrapped up in his own projects, but honestly, so was Scar. Xisuma always had an open ear, and always knew what to do. And now, after losing his memory and being trough all that, he was hurt, badly, losing a lot of blood. Not sure what else to to, Scar hesitantly reached out and patted the side of X's helmet. He didn't really want to take it off of him, tho.

"Xisuma?", he asked, his voice cracking. Still, no reaction.

Scar deflated again, curling together even tighter than before. Then, he had an idea.

He leaned over again, gently looking trough Xisuma's pockets until he found what he was looking for. X's communicator. Maybe he could use it to tell the other hermits where they were!

The device was a little more beat up than his own, and also had some blood on it. With cold fingers, Scar cleaned it off on his pants, then pressed the standby button to turn it on. He was in the lockscreen. In the background was a picture of Xisuma's storage area, the colorful shulker boxes that filled his enderchest arranged on the wall, framed in a way that perfectly aligned with the communicator's screen. Scar smiled at the sight. X was a bit of a nerd, after all. However, as soon as Scar tried to unlock the device, a red-lettered alarm popped up on the screen, and his heart dropped.

**Warning: Non-autho̷̡r̴̕i̵̢͝z͏̶̡ȩ̵̶͏d̴̵̕͜͠ ҉͘͏u̕͝s̵͡e͞͞͡҉e͘e͢e҉̷͢͞r̡͚͉̤͔̕͝ŗ̙̲̹̮̣͉̤͚̯̹͙̠̱̱͡ư̵̵̞̭̯̼͔̩̼͙͘s̢̭̞͙͉̜u̢̕҉̙̥̝̝̤̠͚͞s̴͉̺̜̟͈̺̟̩̙̪̬͢ͅs̢͉̜̟̥̠̳͈̺̠̳͍̲̦̪̯̗͢͞s̷̸̢̗̳̬̗͙̩s̴̴̨̙̻̠͈͞s̴̨̨̪̜͎͔͕̞̗̯̳̼̖̪̘̫͟͟ͅs͜҉͙̗͖͖̠̻̪͚͞ŗ̨̛̻̭̮̥̘̼̭̭̱͙͍̞̩̬̱̙̥͓̩͟r̷̡͎͍̯͎̘̼̜͎̭͉̹̮̺̪͍̟͚͕̮r̶̢̢̨͓͚͍͔̫͈͓͚̭̻̟͇̯̹͜ͅr͈̫̦̪̤͈͈̪̲͓̝͍͚̭͡͞**

The messed up text was overflowing the screen, glitching and twitching and generally freaking Scar out. The letters changed and changed in front of his eyes, sometimes more resembling words, sometimes less. The lockscreen itself was twitching as well, and glimpses of the chat feed were glitching trough, overlayed by the lockscreen, then returning to the warning message over and over again. 

_Oh god, did i break something?_

Scar panicked, hitting the standby button again and therefore turning off the screen. He took a few seconds to calm his beating heart, then tentatively lit up the screen again. It had gone back to the normal lockscreen, thankfully. A pop-up read '1 unlock attempt by unknown user'. Seemed like there was no way to access the device for Scar. He definitely didn't want to mess around with it, that was for sure. Another pop-up gave him a preview of the messages sent in the hermit main chat. He could only read the beginnings of every sentence, but it seemed like everyone was in panic and also worrying about him. He saw more garbled text, apparently replacing the username of someone?

Scar was still a bit freaked out, and seeing Cub's name plop up in chat made him even sadder than before, so he turned off the communicator and set it aside. There was no way he could communicate with the others, anyways. 

He felt helpless. Desperate. What should he do? Wait until daytime? What then? Would Bdubds come looking for them? Would any of the others? Would Jellie find her way back to... somewhere?

He couldn't very well leave Xisuma behind to bleed to death. Maybe he could venture out and scavenge for some food in the morning? Just a quick trip? That sounded like a compromise. 

But for now, it was night, and he couldn't do much anyways. He hugged his legs, drawing them towards his body, and leaned against the dirt wall.

What else was left to do? He did everything in his power, right? Feelings of helplessness and frustration bubbled up, getting stuck in his throat. How did it end up like this?

He rested his head on his legs again, his eyes settling right on the bumps of his knees.

Now he could only wait for Xisuma to wake up, or for someone to find them by chance. 

He felt hot tears soaking into the fabric of his pants. 

* * *

Jellie carefully stepped out of her hiding space under a tree root, sniffing the air. She had been startled when the grey people had suddenly attacked, springing out of her owners arms and into a safe hiding spot as soon as possible. The noises of fighting had finally calmed down, and she had decided it was safe now. There was still a bit of 'hrng.'-ing she could hear from the distance, but it was getting further and further away, and her keen cat ears didn't pick up any suspicious noises in her close vicinity. He fur slowly smoothed out as she lightly stepped back to the clearing where she had last seen her Scar. 

She was worried about him. Jellie knew he had a tendency to get himself hurt, but he always came back for her. And now, he was all weird. She could sense when he wasn't himself, and she didn't like it one bit. Something was happening to him. It was like he was someone else at times.

Jellie stopped, sniffing the air again and listening for any noises. It seemed quiet enough. 

She came back to where Scar, and the man in the helmet, and the loud man had been last. The man in the helmet was usually very nice. He had a very steady hand when petting her and a very safe feel around him, but he seemed a little confused and insecure lately. Jellie trusted him, though. She hoped he was with Scar. 

The grey tabby cat let her eyes wander over the place. Branches had been broken off, dirt was dislodged and footsteps were all over the place. It reeked of the angry grey people, but she could also pick up the scents of Scar, helmet-man and loud man. And blood. She crunched up her nose at the smell, he whiskers twitching nervously. Blood was never a good smell. She took a few cautious steps closer, bending her head down to take a look at a few drops of blood on the floor. It was red, but it didn't smell like Scar's blood. It didn't smell like any blood of the hermits she had smelled so far. It did, however, smell like helmet-man. 

Her ears twitched. Did he get hurt? 

Still worried, Jellie followed the trail of helmet-man smell, lightly treading over an dirt patch that had all been dug up by footsteps and people being dragged around. There was more blood. An arrow was stuck in a tree. There was so much blood, and it was forming a trail on the floor. Helmet-man blood-smell mixed with Scar's smell. Jellie looked around the area once more, tense. She could see clearly in the night, but couldn't find anything besides some monsters in the distance. They wouldn't be a problem. Monsters never attacked her, and some of the gunpowder-smelling ones even seemed scared of her. She flicked her tail from side to side while considering what to do, then followed the path of blood drops on the floor. 

A few blocks away, the smell of Scar got stronger. She could smell the loud man again. There were some bits of Scar's clothing stuck between the forest leaves. Jellie sniffed at them with her mouth open to take in more information. Yes, that was definitely Scar. Now she could even sense the faintest smell of Scar's blood. Her ears went flat on her head in a mix of fear and anger. Who had hurt him? Where was he now? His smell mixed with helmet-mans smell. They were travelling together?

Jellie saw something next to the place where Scar's smell was the strongest. It was a black object, rectangular and with a blinking light in the corner. She recognized it. Scar would always hold it, looking at the screen. He was often happy about what he was seeing, and always told Jellie what was happening with the other hermits after looking at the screen. He was always happy when he looked at it. 

It was important to him. 

Jellie had never seen him without it, either. He lost his weapons and protection all the time, but this thing? Never.

He needed it. 

Jellie walked up to the object, closing her mouth around it and securing it with her fangs. It was a bit big for her, and her jaw hurt a little from lifting it, but she managed to pick it up.

Carrying the thing in her mouth, she started travelling along the trail formed by the smell of weird blood and helmet-man and, most importantly, her Scar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the list of my own experiences that helped me write this fic now also includes 'awkwardly written online warrior cats roleplay from age 13 onwards'


	27. False has the high ground.

Worry clouded False's face as she stepped out of the nether portal, already breaking into a brisk stride as she walked over the glass floor of the hub. 

Whatever was currently going on on the server, she didn't like it. 

A week ago, everything had been fine! She had been working on fixing up the roads in new hermitville for a few days, making everything look nice, making sure all of the games and buildings were properly connected. Then, Iskall, Scar and Xisuma had died on the same day. A little weird, sure, but nothing to worry about. But then Doc and Grian had written in the chat that they had found X, unconscious. False had come over as quickly as she could, visiting him, but at the time the admin had still been unonscious, so there was nothing she could really do besides leaving him some flowers and good wishes.

She had stayed on the main land after that, cleaning up around her base as she waited for news like anyone else did. Things had only gotten weirder and weirder. X woke up, but had apparently lost his memory. Despite everything Grian, Mumbo and Doc tried, he didn't manage to get it back. Then they found Iskall, hurt, and confused. Things started to get even stranger when Scar started acting weird. They found him in weird places. He killed Cub. Iskall wandered off, walking into the nether. False helped to search for him, but couldn't find anything other than a scattered pile of his items somewhere off the portal to his base in the nether. Killed by a ghast. Shortly after that, the theory of Scar being possessed by Evil Xisuma made the rounds, and False got even more worried. Evil Xisuma on the server rarely meant anything good, even if his plans ultimately always failed. 

However, that was always thanks to Xisuma, and he now didn't respond anymore in chat. 

Just a while ago, X had for some reason unbanned Evil Xisuma, and shortly after that said he had gotten his memory back. However, his username was all garbled, then Bdubs got killed by a vindicator, and now none of the hermits could get a hold of Scar or Xisuma. False could only assume the worst.

She had decided to let Evil Xisuma be a concern for another day - if he showed his face, they could always deal with him then - and put her main focus on finding Xisuma himself, and hopefully Scar. If she found Xisuma, he could fix things. It was as simple as that.

X and Scar couldn't have died, or it would have plopped up in chat. She was keeping a close eye on it while she was gearing up, but after Bdubs, no other death messages showed up. However, Iskall had apparently woken up and his username seemed to be just as messed up as the one that presumably belonged to Xisuma. 

False had tucked away her communicator as Evil X started spamming the chat. And now, geared up in her best diamond god armor and with her finest weapons, she started her journey trough the nether hub to go to IDEA and then start her search for their admin. 

If he wasn't dead, but wasn't responding in chat either, that could only mean bad things happening. Maybe he was in combat. Maybe he lost his communicator. Falses mind imagined him captured, unconscious, hurt; the worst things she could come up with. Not willing to let her thoughts get to her, she shook her head, and turned her worry into the energy and determination she needed to find him.

Her steps got faster as she reached the middle of the map room of the nether hub, and by habit she already had taken out her rockets and spread her elytra as she looked up to the red hole in the ceiling. She quickly bent her knees and took off with a powerful jump and a flurry of rockets, propelling her up onto the higher level of the nether hub. She twisted around in midair, elytra spread behind her, and angled herself towards the eastern tunnel - leading to New Hermitville. However, False stopped and landed on the ground again when she heard the sound of rockets being echoed behind her long after her own rockets had faded. 

As urgent as the situation was, she turned around and jogged back to the hole to see who it was that had joined her in the nether. She could really use some support and help with this, anyways. 

However, as she peered down back into the map room, the person striding up to the center was none of the Hermits. 

In fact, it wasn't anyone she wanted to see right now. 

The stranger had already spotted her, and looked up, fixing her with an intense red glare. 

False switched to her sword, standing tall on the edge of the drophole. No use hiding or sneaking around anyways.

"Ah.", she started. "Evil Xisuma."

Her grip on her sword tightened. She considered turning around and running or flying off trough the tunnels, to get to IDEA and start searching for Scar and Xisuma as quickly as possible, but she had the feeling that Evil Xisuma would chase her down. Stop her from helping Xisuma. And a fight in the tight tunnels, and on wings, really wasn't what she was after. She couldn't really judge Evil Xisuma's combat skills. She simply didn't know enough about him, but he was a threat, that much was sure. 

Better be cautious and deal with him now rather than being surprised and back-stabbed later. 

False looked down at the figure. He was wearing the standard outfit: Elytra, diamond helmet, leggings and boots. She wasn't sure about his enchantments, though. His sword was in his hand as he walked up to the hole in the ceiling. He was walking briskly, obviously a clear goal in mind. 

Something along the lines of 'It's over Evil Xisuma, i have the high ground' came to her mind as she stood high above him, but she bit her lips. Maybe if the situation wasn't so dire. Maybe if it had been anyone else other than bloody _Evil Xisuma._ This wasn't the time for joking around. 

He stopped, just staring at her. His helmet tilted to the side ever so slightly. Was he considering what to do with her? Somehow, the red glowing behind his black visor unnerved her. 

" **...Don't try to stop me.** ", he finally said, twirling the sword around his hand once.

"Sorry but, i think i have to.", False answered, equally firm. She took out her bow, loosely putting an arrow on the string. "I'll give you one chance: Leave."

" **You can't tell me what to do.** "

"Fine, then. Don't say i didn't warn ya."

With that, False pulled back the arrow on the bow within the second, and released her grip. It left a flaming trail and sunk itself into the glass below, since Evil X had just about managed to strafe to the side. His head whipped back up, and she saw him cycling trough weapons until he finally had a bow in his hands as well. 

" **No, don't YOU say i didn't warn YOU!** "

False narrowed her eyes, a little annoyed. Did this guy really had to have the last word before they started to fight? Unbelievable. She dropped down to easily avoid an array of quickly fired, but not very well aimed shots, then spammed a few rockets to fly a wide arc just below the ceiling of the big nether hub room, pivoting around Evil X while always keeping an eye on him. 

As soon as the rocket propulsion ended, she had her bow in her hand again, aiming at the red figure below. Her first arrow was a little low and didn't make it, but the next one hit her goal with a satisfying 'ding'. She heard Evil Xisuma curse as he was set on fire, and then saw him take off, momentarily switching his weapon for some golden carrots to eat and heal up. He flew to the opposite corner of the Hub, trying to buy time from her attack as he was eating. A slight smirk snuck onto Falses face. She wouldn't let him heal up in peace, that much was sure. 

Firing more rockets again, she took out her sword in mid-flight, raising it up in front to her as she barreled towards Evil X who was in a wide downward-spiral. He yelped as she reached him, changing directions in panic by twisting around and narrowly evading her blade. False professionally swooped upwards to slow down, then turned around to have eyes on her enemy again. Evil Xisuma was once more trying to shoot her with some arrows, but she simply ducked below them as she angled herself downwards once more. She returned fire with her bow, but Evil X managed to deflect it with his sword this time, then used the shopping district's nether portal to hide from her line of sight. 

At least he was using his brains, False thought as she followed another wide arc with her wings, landing gently on the glass a good distance away from Evil Xisuma. She heard him eating as she closed in, stuffing a golden carrot in her face as well just so she could regen her health if it was needed. He sword in hand, she made the final steps to look around the portal, while keeping a safe distance to it. 

Evil Xisuma had been expecting her and lunged forwards, although he had to take a good few more steps to reach her than calculated, giving False time to prepare. Finally, their blades crossing with that satisfying _clank_ that only diamond gear could produce. EX had brought his sword down onto her with a surprising amount of brute force, but nothing she couldn't handle. Her knees bent inward slightly, but she was just pulling back to bring up her sword as powerful as she could, driving Evil Xisuma a step away from her. 

She followed directly after, swinging her sword downwards as she charged at him. He managed to parry, again, and they started exchanging blows and crossing blades. False could see that Evil Xisuma was a skilled fighter, light on his feet, but he couldn't quite keep up with her. Maybe it was the long banishment that had gotten him out of practice? Maybe he was just not used to fighting someone head-on? Either way, False used it to her advantage and didn't leave him any room to recover. Her attacks rained down onto him, and although he could parry or evade most of them, he was clearly on the defense, slowly being driven backwards trough the nether hub. 

False could tell he was getting frustrated, as well. His side-steps got more aggressive, the few counterattacks he was launching picked up in velocity and force. False felt a strike vibrating trough her sword and the very bones in her arms as she blocked his attack. He was getting more forceful, but also more careless. Sloppy. 

She swiftly ducked under his next strike and used her momentum to deliver a kick to his shins, trying to disrupt his balance and make him fall. He growled in anger, stumbling forwards, and False jumped back to her feet and lunged after him, sword first. Evil Xisuma whipped around and raised his own sword, but the power behind her attack finally tripped him over. He hit the floor hard with his back, grunting in pain. Before he had time to recover, False pinned him to the floor with her knee on his shins and her other foot on one of his arms. He tried to tear away his arm, to no avail, and false raised her sword, set on ending this as quickly as possible and helping Xisuma. 

However, Evil X of course had other plans. Just as she brought down her sword, he raised his other, free hand, dropped his weapon, and used her own momentum against her to pull at her arm and throw her over his head with the help of his feet being brought up to her stomach. Falses world flipped and spun around as she was lifted, and the impact on the floor left her wheezing for air. She quickly regained her bearings and sprung back to her feet, spinning around to get her eyes back on Evil X. He was picking his sword back up and turned around to her as well. 

"...Not bad, not bad." Her voice was teasing, and a smile came back to her face as she rubbed over her aching stomach. Evil Xisuma did hit pretty hard. 

But so did she. 

Before EX could answer, she charged at him again, and this time his parry was poorly placed. The tip of her sword scraped against his own, and then slid off to the side, leaving a serious cut in his left arm. The wound was immediately set aflame, thanks to the enchantments on Falses trusted sword. She immediately jumped backwards getting some distance again.

" **Yowch!** ", Evil Xisuma cried out, shuffling back as well and patting his sleeve in an effort to get rid of the flames. He cursed as he saw False coming at him once more, and ignored his pain to deal with her first. 

The two of them picked up their deathly dance once more. The nether hub was filled with the clinking of their swords, their heavy boots on the glass floor. EX was now a bit more careful, probably after realizing False was a much more serious adversary than first thought. _Good_ , False thought. She had a grim grin on her face, bearing down on Evil X without relent. She was a flurry of diamond glistening blades and blonde hair following her movements. _Should have put it up in a ponytail first_., False thought to herself as her hair whipped around her. At least her goggles were keeping it somewhat in place. 

Evil Xisuma was still angry, maybe even more so than before, but was clearly putting more thoughts into his fighting. He wasn't as reckless, and instead of constantly driving him backwards like before, False now had to parry on her own quite a few times. He was learning. False was breathing heavily, the thick, warm nether air making fighting not any easier. 

Eventually, EX did manage to land a few hits on her. Most of them were deflected by her diamond armor, but he did leave a pretty substancial gash on her left shoulder, and got in a few smaller cuts on her unprotected torso. She retaliated whenever he hit her, mostly striking his arms and legs where his armor didn't cover him. None of the injuries were threathening in any way, but both of them were getting worn out by the lengthy battle. Both needed to draw back and heal up, but neither of them were gonna let the other do that. 

Evil X jumped back to get some distance, but False was right onto him, delivering a kick to his chest. He stumbled backwards, hissing in pain, then charged forwards and barreled into her with his shoulder. The breath was knocked out of False's lungs and she was thrown backwards, flying a few blocks and then skidding over the floor painfully. Still in movement, she twisted around to get her feet back under her, finally coming to an halt crouching on one knee. She glared at Evil Xisuma, securing her grip on her sword again while she tried to get her breath back. He stomach area where EX had hit her hurt. That would definitely leave a bruise. However, all minor injuries considered, she was still doing fine, only about four hearts down on health. 

She saw Evil X had retreated somewhat to eat some Golden carrots, and did the same. Energy returned to her limbs as she healed up, the cuts on her arms slowly closed somewhat, and just a second later she was charging back at Evil Xisuma. 

He groaned in annoyance, leaping backwards. " **Would you- just- let me go already!** ", he growled, parrying Falses sword at each word.

"Why, getting tired?" False asked smugly, spinning around in a 360° arc to hit EX's side with the grip of her sword, right in his ribs. His red armor took most of the force, but she still heard him wheeze as he was flung to the floor. 

" **Ugh, you wish!** ", he hissed back at her, but his voice was strained. Instead of getting back to his feet, he brought out his leg in a wide swing to attempt to swipe away Falses feet as she walked up to him. 

She was, however, prepared for that, and simply jumped over his leg, leaving him kicking into thin air. Quickly setting a boot on his chest, she pinned him in place once more. taking her sword into both hands, she jabbed it downwards. Evil X tried his best to throw his body to the side to avoid being killed. Falses sword still managed to hit him in his side, making him cry out in pain and leaving a stab wound below his ribs. She was thrown off of him, however, as she hadn't expected that much power behind his movements and had her body weight put off balance. Stumbling backwards, she tried to get back onto her feet, but finally fell backwards, landing on her back. She barely had time to sit back up before EX was onto her again, ignoring the wound and the fact that it had, once more, set him aflame, and brought his diamond sword down. 

"Augh!" False had no time to parry or evade, and his swing left a shallow, but very broad gash across her belly. However, that left him wide open. Gritting her teeth against the pain that was spiking trough her, she charged forwards instead of retreating, surprising him. She dropped her sword and wrapped her arm around his neck tightly, putting him into a headlock. 

" **Agh! What in the bloody-...!** ", EX cursed, wheezing as his air supply was getting limited by Falses arm. He dropped his sword as well to grab her arms and tear at her vice, but her grip was strong like steel. 

She went into full-on wrestling mode, wrapping her leg around his knee to bring him to fall. It worked. The two of them toppled down, rolling over the floor before False tried to pin him down and restrict his movement. He wasn't having any of it, and tried to pull back out of her headlock. He wasn't very successful with it, though, as False tightened her grip even more and used her other arm to grab onto his helmet as well. She could tell he was panicking, as his attempts to break free were getting more desperate and powerful. False didn't let go of him, though.

The result was that, after another forceful tug, Evil Xisuma's helmet came loose and both of them were sent flying backwards at the sudden release of force. False dropped to the floor in surprise, his helmet still in hands. He fell down next to her, a surprising amount of white hair falling loose and getting all up in Falses face. She sputtered and got up to her feet as soon as she could, helmet in one hand, the other pressing over the gash on her stomach. She felt blood seeping out, but was focusing on Evil X. 

False had never seen his face before, and, to put it frankly, it was a lot less threatening than she would have thought. 

He had gotten up on all fours and was trying to get his bearings, wildly staring around. He was breathing heavily, and his eyes widened as he gripped his throat. 

False stared at him, then the helmet in her hand. Then back to him. 

Evil Xisuma tried to get up, but started coughing and staggering and fell back down, wheezing. Panicked, he looked around, finally looking up to her. She was surprised when purple eyes met her blue ones. 

"M-My helmet...", he sputtered out, being interrupted by a coughing fit. "I can't- I can't breathe, please-...!"

His voice sounded eerily similar to Xisuma's now that it wasn't filtered trough his helmet. 

False stared down at him, making sure his eyes met her again. She held his gaze for a few seconds, in which his breathing grew more and more labored, then finally tossed his helmet over to him. He struggled to catch it, then pulled it back over his head quickly, with shaking hands. False used the moment to pick up his sword, then walked over to him to loom over him, looking down as he took deep breaths and calmed down.

Finally, he looked up again, still kneeling on the floor. His ganze wandered over her, now back to two red glowing dots looking out of his visor. She was standing tall over him, both of their diamond swords in her hands. His head turned to his side, his shoulders drooping down. He winced as he put his hand over the stab wound in his side, settling down. 

It was clear who the winner of this match was. 

False stared down at him for a few more tense moment, making sure he understood that she would NOT tolerate him trying anything funny. He didn't move, just trying to calm his breathing. 

When she was sure he wouldn't do anything, False stored his sword in her inventory and took out Golden Carrots instead, eating a few of them until her hunger bar was full. Her health bar, which had been down to four and a half hearts, replenished slowly, and she enjoyed the uncomfortable, but soothing feeling of her skin pulling back together as the gash across her stomach closed somewhat. The smaller cuts' and bruises' stings were dulled as they healed up as well. 

Evil Xisuma just stared up at her, and she could almost feel the resentment seeping out from behind his visor. He didn't do anything, though. She was sure he was fully aware that she was still holding her sword. He didn't even dare to take out some food to heal, False noticed with a satisfied thought. 

"Well, then.", she began again, pointing the tip of her sword at his chest. "Now tell me why you were here, and what you are up to."

His red 'eyes' narrowed as he thought about his options. " **Fine.** ", he finally spat out, grumbling. " **I'm on my way to find that idiot Xisuma. He owes me a lot of explanation.** "

"And what were you gonna do once you found him?", False pressed on.

" **...Nothing?** "

"Does that involve a sword, perhaps?"

" **Fine, i WAS maybe gonna kill him two or three times, but nothing more.** "

False silently tilted her head sideways.

" **What?!** "

"No blowing up the server or destroying all hermits?"

He turned away, avoiding her gaze. False was sure he could feel her eyes piercing trough him, as he drew up his shoulders uncomfortably. 

"Speak.", she commanded, not leaving room for any discussion.

Evil Xisuma grumbled. " **...I kinda promised him.** ", he finally brought out, so quiet one could easily miss it. 

False was taken aback, slightly relaxing her sword in surprise. "Promised him what?"

" **...I promised not to be evil anymore so he would agree to unban me, alright? Now lay off me!** " He glared at her again. False was sure he was glad she couldn't see his face right now, because he sounded proper embarassed. 

She considered his words for a second. 

On one hand, he was _Evil Xisuma_.

On the other hand... He knew she had beaten him, and he kind of acknowledged that. And he did sound serious about that promise he made, although she couldn't really judge his honesty here. 

Looking down at him for a while longer, she finally came to a decision. She slowly lowered her sword, offering a careful truce. 

"Alright, then. I will believe you - for now."

He perked up, obviously not having expected that. 

"I'm on my way to look for X as well. He isn't responding in chat, something bad must have happened to him."

Evil Xisuma seemed alarmed. " **Where is he now?** " He tried to get back onto his feet, a bit wobbly due to his injuries. The stab wound in his side was still bleeding heavily, and he looked like he would collapse any second. He made it onto his knees, but stopped wincing in pain.

"We don't know, but he was last seen at IDEA. That's where I'm headed." She put away her sword in an offer of peace, then held her hand out to him. "Heal up, then let's go. I won't let you kill him, though, you know that."

He looked up to her, then tentatively took her hand and let himself be pulled up by her. He fixed her in his gaze, then nodded once in agreement to a truce. 

"And I will keep my eyes on you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And for my birthday today, have an entire long chapter of evil x getting his ass handed to him as a gift!
> 
> reading fighting scenes is one of the most exciting parts of a fic for me, but theyre always so short! So i thought "what if i wrote a fighting scene that takes up most of the chapter's plot" and i did. Im not sure if my fighting writing is any good, but hey! can't get better unless you do it!
> 
> also, thank you for the amazing amount of nice comments (in general and especially for the Jellie PoV! :D)  
> hope y'all have a great day! <3


	28. Scar has some heart-warming moments.

Scar had his eyes closed, still remaining in the same curled up position to preserve some body heat. He didn't know how much time had passed. Zombie noises were still hearable outside of their shut-off cave, sometimes closer, sometimes further away. It was impossible to tell the time. How long had he been sitting here? How much longer would the night be? 

Scar felt weak, not even having enough energy to lift his head and check on Xisuma. He still hadn't woken up... But he couldn't die, right? He would surely respawn and his body dissolve into a puff of smoke and a mess of items if he did, _right_?

Scar sighed, the warm air from his lungs hitting his legs and making him remember just how cold it was. 

Would anyone even come for them? 

Did they even know where to look for them?

He felt sick to his stomach. Or maybe it was just the hunger, he wasn't sure. His hunger bar was all the way down to three points. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see it anymore. 

Another minute passed. 

Then another. 

Scar was feeling drowsy. He didn't want to fall asleep in this situation, but he was just so exhausted...

A noise to his left abruptly tore him out of his sleepiness.

It was a strained breathing noise, a little muffled and distorted by a helmet, but definitely deeper and louder, and therefore more noticeable than the calm, quiet breaths from Xisuma that had kept him company so far. With wide eyes and a heavily beating heart, Scar lifted his head and looked over to X. 

Xisuma's face had changed, his brows drawn together in pain and his eyelids twitching. His breathing was faster and more ragged. Was he dreaming badly? Or, just maybe, was he waking up? A sliver of hope crept into Scar's mind. He un-curled himself slightly, then clasped his numb fingers around his leather coat he had covered Xisuma with and lifted it gently. The make-shift bandages around his shoulder were stained red, darkest in the areas just above the gash. He carefully put the coat down onto him again, then let his hand rest on Xisuma's forearm. 

"Xisuma...?", Scar whispered, his voice hoarse and quiet. He shuffled a little closer to the admin, looking down onto his face. 

Xisuma's eyelids fluttered open, blinking heavily. He seemed to have trouble focusing, as his eyes shifted left and right before finally settling on Scar's eyes. 

"Xisuma!" Relief flooded Scar's heart. He was awake! Well, sort of. 

A muffled "Nnff?" wasn't really the answer Scar had been looking for, but he should give X a little bit more time. 

The admin struggled to stay conscious, and also tried to sit up, faltering in pain when he tried to move his shoulder. Scar could hear a pained noise filtering trough his helmet, as Xisuma reached up to his shoulder and touched the improvised bandage Scar had wrapped him in. 

"Ah-... Wuh... Scar, 's that you?" Xisuma's voice was a slurred whisper, strained from pain and confusion. 

"Yes, X, i'm here." Scar wrapped his arms around himself, crouching next to Xisuma. It was still freezing, after all. 

"I.... uh...." Dazed, Xisuma looked around himself, seemingly not recognizing anything. He did notice Scar's coat draped over him and attempted to lift it, but it slipped out of his fingers. "....yours?", he managed to get out. 

"Yeah. You were cold." Scar wasn't sure what he wanted to say, but that wasn't it. "Xisuma, how are you feeling?"

X blinked at him for a few moments, blankly. He, again, tried to sit up, but swayed to the side. Scar could catch him just about in time and helped him to lay back down. "Don't try getting up, X! You need to rest."

"...Dizzy. 'M not feeling very good." Xisuma completely ignored his instructions and struggled against Scars grip, trying to get up.

"X, stop! You lost a lot of blood, please stay down." 

"...Blood?" Xisuma stilled, looking confused again. Then, slowly, realization crept into his eyes. "I... Oh my word! I need to... to fix..." He trailed off, clumsily patting down the pockets of his pants. 

"What? Xisuma, what happened out there? I woke up here, and you were unconscious."

That stopped Xisuma, and he looked back to Scar in horror. "Unconscious...? Oh, dear... Oh no, I should've... 's supposed to protect...ugh..." His voice got even quieter as a new wave of nausea seemed to wash over him. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, his arm covering his visor. 

"Xisuma?"

His eyes sprung back open. "...all good. I'm good. I need to fix this." He started rummaging trough his pockets, even more pathetic this time. 

Then, Scar realized what X was searching. 

"Here." He held out X's communicator, which he had still been holding onto. "I tried to message the others, but couldn't unlock it. Went all weird and glitchy. Could you tell the others our coords?"

"Yeah yeah, in a second." Xisumas eyes were trained onto the device as he took it into his shaking hands. "I just need to fix this first."

"Fix...? Fix what?" To Scar's disdain, he saw Xisuma switching into the admin controls instead of the chat. He started scrolling up an endless log of data. "No, No! Come on, X, that can wait! We need to get out of here! Text the other's where we are, they're really worried about us!"

Xisuma still had a hard time staying awake, his fingers slipping over the keyboard and making the log jump to different places in the text all over again. "Ugh..." X groaned, holding his head in his hand for a second. Then, he stared blankly to his communicator, and then finally up to Scar, only now registering that he had said something. "...What?"

"Text the others our coordinates. Xisuma, please!" Scar pleaded, already half reaching over to help the admin switch to the chat log on his communicator. 

"...Right. 'f course." Xisuma muttered, squinting his eyes. With shaking hand, he raised the communicator back up. 

The next second, both of them cried out in pain. 

A sharp pain was spreading from Scar's stomach, and he doubled over. He felt scorching hot, fire running over him beneath his skin. The heat was eating him up from the inside. He pressed his hand onto his stomach, realizing he was bleeding. As the first wave of pain slowly faded, he grimaced, un-clenching his jaw and looking under his shirt. A small, punctual wound was on his stomach. He took a short glance to his health bar, but curiously, he hadn't lost any hearts. 

Wouldn't have done him any good anyways, since they had no food. 

The pain subsided somewhat, and Scar looked over to Xisuma. He was curled up into a tight ball, pressing his hands over his stomach as well. His communicator had fallen to the floor. "Xisuma? Xisuma!" Scar called out to him, and the admin slowly raised his head towards him, still painfully tense. He was breathing heavily, obviously in pain. 

"Scar, what's happening?" He sounded so lost, so confused. 

"I-.... I don't know, there must be something going on! Ah, i know! Maybe Iskall has gotten hurt?"

"...Iskall?" The name was just a hissed breath drawn between Xisuma's teeth as he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to get rid of pain and nausea. 

"You know, the whole weird thing where our injuries are connected? Since nothing happened to us, it must be Iskall." Scar's voice was drenched in worry, even forgetting his hunger, pain and the cold. He flinched as a sudden, dull pain started spreading over his back, especially along his spine. It felt like being thoroughly bruised. By the way Xisuma's body tensed up, Scar guessed he was feeling the same thing. 

"Ow... why...?", X whined. Scar had no doubt his shoulder was still hurting as well. 

"Please, Xisuma, i don't-... I hate to ask this of you since you're hurt but... please, tell the other's where we are..."

"...Right-" Xisuma was trying his hardest to get some focus together to pick back up the communicator. However, they were interrupted by a new wave of searing pain shooting trough them, this time at their left arms. Scar winced as he gripped his arm, seeing a new cut forming in his skin. It was creeping him out, as well. Seeing injuries appear without a cause. Fire washed over them again, even worse this time. Scar would almost compare it to being hit by a flame or fire aspect enchanted weapon, but his brain couldn't really think clearly now. Eventually, it was over, being replaced by a more dull aching in his chest. 

Xisuma had it worse, since he had already lost so much blood before and still wasn't healed from that. He was on the floor, clenching his fists and shaking, just trying to get trough it.

"Ugh..." Scar felt exhausted. 

Xisuma didn't answer him. Over the next few minutes, several minor bruises and scratches showed up on their arms, not too bad, but wearing them out nonetheless.

_What in the world is Iskall doing? Is he in a fight?_

Scar's ribs felt like they were being pushed into his chest. Bruises were already forming on his skin, as well. 

Both of them startled at the next rush of pain, this time even worse than the others before. Once again came the fire coursing trough his veins, but Scar could only focus on the fact that a substantial stab wound had just opened up below his ribs, and was starting to bleed over his shirt. He doubled over, not missing the bittersweet irony of him freezing earlier only to now feel like he had literally been set on fire, once more. He closed his eyes, hoping the pain would subside soon. It lingered on and on, blood trickling down his hands that pressed onto the wound. It didn't seem that deep, just like the wound he had on his shoulder in the same place X had that deep gash, but the waves of pain spreading from it were still real enough.

At least the heat faded after a few seconds. Scar sighed and pressed his head to the cold dirt floor. Another couple of moments later, the pain lessened enough for him to sit back up, wincing. He pulled a grimace as he looked down his shirt, stained red. He was tired, so tired...

Filled with dread, Scar looked over to Xisuma. The admin wasn't moving. His face was turned away from him, and his breathing seemed strained. 

"X?" Scar asked, his voice just a whisper. Xisuma didn't answer. Scar softly tugged at his shoulder, and he rolled onto his back. Xisuma had passed out again, lying motionless. 

Scar let out a shaky breath, worried. _Seems like the pain was too much on top of his injuries..._

He couldn't help but wonder what happened. Obviously it wasn't either of them, so... _did Iskall get hurt again?_ Scar couldn't think of anything giving Iskall cut and stab wounds like this. 

Scar settled back against the wall, trying to get his tired brain on to figuring this out so he would be distracted from the stinging of his wounds. He tucked his coat back up over Xisuma, not much else he could do for the admin. The wound on his ribs was relatively shallow as well, just like it was on Scar, and he had run out of things to use as bandages anyways. He assumed the fire-like feeling he had experienced was a form of weapon enchantment, like fire aspect. At least it had always felt pretty similar to this when the hermits had fought between each other, for fun and diamonds but with sharp weapons. It had rarely been this drawn out, though. Usually they would eat and heal soon, or, well, they would die and respawn. Scar shuddered involuntarily. The last few days, he hadn't had many pleasant experiences with respawning. 

_...Right, Flame Enchantment._ That suggested Iskall had been fighting another Hermit, but Scar wondered why on earth he would be in a fight right now. Last time he saw him, Iskall had been in the bed in Grian's base, closely guarded by Mumbo, Doc, and Grian himself. And Cub... Scar shook his head, trying not to think about his friend or how worried he must been about him right now. _Iskall. What happened._ He strongly doubted any of the hermits would have left Iskall unsupervised, or let anyone fight against him, or let him go out anywhere. And besides that, Iskall was a great PvP fighter! Whoever fought against him must have been pretty good to get that many hits in on him. 

Scar sighed, obviously being stuck on his train of thought. He was exhausted anyways, mentally and physically. 

What if he closed his eyes just a little bit...?

Next he knew, Scar was torn from dozing off by a noise. A very familiar voice. A meow.

Suddenly, Scar was wide awake. 

"Jellie?", he whispered, helplessly turning his head, still confused and tired. There was another meow, just from outside the wall he had constructed to block off the entrance to their small cave. He could also hear soft scratching on the log he had placed. 

"Jellie! Jellie, is that you?" Hope bubbled up in him, and excitement. As quick as he could, he staggered to his feet, feeling lightheaded. He tore at one of the dirt blocks with his bare hands, finally digging it out. 

Outside, it was still dark, but he could see the familiar shape of a grey tabby cat hopping up into the space he had just opened up. It truly was Jellie. 

"Oh, Jellie! Did you find your way here all by yourself? You're amay-zing!" 

Tears forming in his eyes, Scar gently scooped up the cat, embracing her in his arms. The wounds on his shoulder and ribs hurt, and he almost faltered from the pain. 

Jellie let out a confused and worried 'Mrrrow?', rubbing her head against his jaw. He felt something clunky drop into his lap. 

"Jellie?"

He let go of the cat, as she wrangled herself out of his arms. She rubbed her whole body against his side, then sniffed at him. Then, she trotted over to Xisuma, apparently examining him. Finally, Jellie decided to curl up right on X's chest, starting to purr heavily. 

Scar's smile softened at the sight. "You're such a clever cat, Jellie. Please take good care of him."

He grimaced as he put back the dirt block to plug the wall, then forced his straining body back into a comfortable position, leaned against the back wall. Only then he examined what Jellie had brought him.

It was his communicator.

"Jellie!", he exclaimed, surprised. He purring filled the whole cave, and she looked at him, almost expectantly. 

"Oh, Jellie...", Scar cried, reaching over to her again and putting his arms around her. He laid there silently for a second, petting her behind her ears. She purred even louder. "You're my saviour, Jellie. You know that.", Scar muttered into her fur. 

When he had calmed down, he finally sat back and opened up his communicator. Thank god it was still working. There were a ton of unread chat messages, and Scar really had to tell the other's where he and Xisuma were as quick as possible. He skimmed over the chat, starting at the point where Xisuma had unbanned Evil X and Scar himself had passed out. Apparently Bdubs had been killed by a vindicator shortly after. _Is that where X got his injuries from? A pillager attack?_ After that, Iskall had woken up, although his username was messed up just like what he presumed Xisuma's was. Generally speaking, everyone was worried about Xisuma and him, asking for coordinates to go and help them. False already seemed to be on her way. Then people were realizing they didn't see Evil Xisuma anywhere. Someone else with a weird username, and Scar assumed this was EX, wrote in galactic and then in allcaps in the chat, demanding to know where X was. However, of course no one knew an answer to this. Scar's heart ached to see how worried Cub was about him. After the message of Tango saying they found Evil Xisuma, there was a few minute long gap between the next messages.

TangoTek: guys, we found Evil Xisuma

TangoTek: he was the one texting earlier

TangoTek: he's on his way to X i think

ZombieCleo: any news?

Grian: were gearing up right now

Grian: then we're going as well.

T̡͜im͘͝͠es̡E̴̕v̛͝҉il҉s̛͢ưI̵͏s͏: yeah, me too

ZombieCleo: grian who is with you?

Grian: doc cub mumby me and iskall

Stressmonster101: is iskall good enough to go already?

T̡͜im͘͝͠es̡E̴̕v̛͝҉il҉s̛͢ưI̵͏s͏: i'm fine!

T̡͜im͘͝͠es̡E̴̕v̛͝҉il҉s̛͢ưI̵͏s͏: i can handle it

Docm77: dont worry stress, we will watch out for him

Cubfan135: but we still don't know where to go

ImpulseSV: guys, has anyone seen Evil X? he left to the nether and we can't find him

TangoTek: we split up and are looking trough the tunnels right now

FalseSymmetry: hes with me!

FalseSymmetry: he is

FalseSymmetry: uh

FalseSymmetry: not a threat

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: EXCUSE ME?

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: I AM MOST DEFINITELY A THREAT 

TangoTek: oh! where are you guys?

FalseSymmetry: almost at IDEA

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: HELLO?

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: ARE YOU IGNORING ME?

FalseSymmetry: our plan is to meet up with keralis and bdubs and trace back their steps

**BdoubleO100 was slain by Vindicator.**

FalseSymmetry: bdubs stay where you are!

BdoubleO100: darn pillagers! >:(

ImpulseSV: that sounds as good a plan as any

ImpulseSV: tell us if you find anything

FalseSymmetry: will do!

su̕͜G͘͘͟o͏̢o͘d̶̡̧̕͜k̛̕͜͡a̵̸̢ļ͘͝l̡͜͏m͢a̡͠͞͏: I WONT

Grian: were leaving now

TangoTek: trough nether?

TangoTek: we're coming as well, meet in the hub?

MumboJumbo: yes

Scar smiled and chuckled weakly at the hermit's antics. It was great to see them all working together. Focusing his tired eyes, he brought up his debug screen, copying down the coordinates of where he was right now. 

X̴̷͞i͠m̶̛͟͝͝a̡͘̕͠5̸̢̛W̴̧͞i͏̛͟t̶̨̨h̶̢: 7384 / -854

X̴̷͞i͠m̶̛͟͝͝a̡͘̕͠5̸̢̛W̴̧͞i͏̛͟t̶̨̨h̶̢: is where we ar

X̴̷͞i͠m̶̛͟͝͝a̡͘̕͠5̸̢̛W̴̧͞i͏̛͟t̶̨̨h̶̢: scaar an dx

Cubfan135: scar!

ZombieCleo: Scar!! :D

Stressmonster101: scar, how are you?

Stressmonster101: wots happening?

Keralis1: !!

X̴̷͞i͠m̶̛͟͝͝a̡͘̕͠5̸̢̛W̴̧͞i͏̛͟t̶̨̨h̶̢: x is hurt

X̴̷͞i͠m̶̛͟͝͝a̡͘̕͠5̸̢̛W̴̧͞i͏̛͟t̶̨̨h̶̢: much

MumboJumbo: Oh! Scar!

X̴̷͞i͠m̶̛͟͝͝a̡͘̕͠5̸̢̛W̴̧͞i͏̛͟t̶̨̨h̶̢: tired

X̴̷͞i͠m̶̛͟͝͝a̡͘̕͠5̸̢̛W̴̧͞i͏̛͟t̶̨̨h̶̢: bring food

FalseSymmetry: gotchu

FalseSymmetry: will be there in a minute

With a sigh and a smile, Scar relaxed. 


	29. The cave they are hiding in gets a little crowded.

Evil Xisuma was angry. 

He took big strides trough the forest, shoving mobs aside with his bare hands and leaving FalseSymmetry to fall into a jog to keep up with him. They were currently making their way to the coordinates one of the other Hermits had sent into the chat. Ex didn't care who it was, but apparently Xisuma was with them. Probably the one dude he had found himself possessing in the past few days. Scar. He hadn't waited for FalseSymmetry to catch up with the other two hermits they had seen at the large blue and yellow building and just stormed off. False seemed to be able to keep up with his fast pace, but the other two were lagging behind, already out of sight. What were their names? Bubbles? Something with K? He pretended not to remember. 

EX growled into his helmet lowly as he kicked a skeleton square in the chest, sending it flying backwards with a rattle of bones before he kept walking. 

Of course, he was mostly mad at himself, but he would never admit that to anyone.

No, the one he should _really_ be mad at was Xisuma, obviously. 

How could he! Just banning him like that! After all they had been trough together! _Of course Xisuma was mostly right, I AM incredibly dangerous. But still! I'm his brother! He could have at least talked to me or faced me in a fair fight._ EX scoffed at the thought. The long months of banishment, alone in the void, had made him weary and exhausted. He would have been glad to have ground back under his feet, and wind sliding off of his helmet, but no! Now Xisuma had gotten himself into some sort of situation, and of course needed _his_ help to fix it. Seriously, Evil X had no idea what had happened. Usernames all garbled? Waking up in someone elses body? After being unbanned, a weird injury appearing on his shoulder??

The three idiots he had encountered after re-entering the server had not been much help either, although one of them reminded him of his old friend Wormman... But that memory made it even more painful. What had he done to deserve being banned like this? Besides several attempts to destroy the server, of course. 

And now, even worse, he had lost a fight. 

He glared back at the woman in question, who was still keeping her eyes on him as she followed him trough the forest. She was dispatching mobs left and right, using both her own sword and his. _Probably just to flex on me_ , EX thought full of disdain, deciding to ignore her and keep moving. The injuries on his ribs and arm, despite being mostly healed, were still stinging at his every move. He ignored them. 

And the stupid promise he had made to Xisuma! 

EX knew he had been desperate. His grip on GoodTimeWithScar's body had slipped, and he had dreaded going back into the void. But for him to break down crying and pleading to X and making promises.... pathetic. He knew he would be beating himself up about that for quite a while. That was so _embarrassing_!

After leaving the trio of hermits at the Civil War ground and losing to FalseSymmetry in the nether hub (he _still_ couldn't believe it!) they had made their way trough the nether tunnels, flying as quickly as they could. False had led them trough a portal, and they had ended up near a large blue and yellow building EX didn't recognize at all. False had pushed him along to enter, and there they had found a very distressed hermit with wide eyes, and the other one called Bubbles, which had apparently just respawned twice. (Yes, Evil X had read his name as BdoubleO100 in the chat, but he refused to acknowledge he knew any of these bastards names. He would rather eat his boots than admit he cared enough to remember them.)

Evil Xisuma had tuned out during their conversation, instead standing in the corner, brooding, and glaring daggers at False while he was making plans on how to get his sword back at least. Then suddenly, all of their comms had pinged. Someone with a username just as garbled as his had sent them coordinates, and False had gotten all excited and serious and said this was there they would find Scar and Xisuma. EX had stormed off right after that, and here they were. 

He had the coordinates toggled on, projected onto the visor of his helmet, continuously checking if he was moving into the right direction. His boots hit the forest floor heavily. A puddle splashed to the side, and he swerved to avoid some berry bushes, secretly glancing back to see if maybe False would step into them. She didn't. 

EX muttered indiscernible curses into his helmet, still angry. 

However, by now, worry was seeping into him. It was very unlike Xisuma to not respond to any calls and texts like that. Especially not responding to HIM. 

Sure, X and him hadn't been off to the best start. Honestly, that was mostly Xisuma's fault. He left him in the Eternal End, their home dimension. EX had to survive all on his own. Staying in their little base area was fine, since there were rarely and end creatures, but of course EX was a curious nature and couldn't help going out and explore on his own. After a few months, he had managed to open a portal after defeating some kind of enderdragon - at great loss to his face, which now sported a large cross-shaped scar. 

However, he had managed to worm his way onto the overworld servers, where X had been. Evil Xisuma constantly tried to cross, him, to get his attention, to get him back for leaving him in the Eternal End. He wanted to show X that he couldn't just ignore him like that. And at some point, he had also found fun in coming up with new ways to kill his brother and elaborate plots to destroy the server. After his last major attempt to get rid of Xisuma, they had actually started to get along better. They had gone christmas shopping, and EX had spent quite a while living with him. It had been.... nice. Sure, EX missed having a goal to work towards to, but always annoying and bothering his brother without downright killing him had been fun too. 

He wished they could go back to that.

EX had been shocked when Xisuma had banned him somewhere in season 6. It had come pretty much out of nothing, after not talking to him for a few weeks. Why?

He really needed to have a word with him.

So it was even more important to get there as quickly as possible. 

EX grinned grimly under his helmet. Oh, Xisuma would get an _earful_ from him about not answering him in chat! And that after their emotional conversation earlier, and not seeing him for months!

Still miffed, but more determined and looking forward to telling Xisuma his exact opinion, Evil Xisuma continued to make his way trough the forest. The coordinates False had given him came closer and closer. He sidestepped a creeper, making sure a tree was between him and the creepers line of sight. He heard False yelp in surprise, but sadly, there was no explosion, just a short hiss and a few good sword whacks. Shame. 

"Don't do that again.", False told him full of disdain as she caught up with him. 

" **What? I didn't do anything.** " EX said in a sweet voice, shrugging. 

False scoffed and checked her communicator. "We should be there soon, it's only a couple blocks further."

EX nodded once, then continued on with heavy steps. False followed, right next to him. He glared at her again, wishing once more he could talk to Xisuma in private instead of with.... her of all people. Was he still salty about being beaten by a wide margin in a fight? Maybe so. 

Nevertheless, he continued. The two of them broke trough the last trees, standing on top of a small hill. In front of them was a vast snowy landscape, lying in darkness. Mobs were littering the area. Of course, it was still the middle of the night. 

"Ugh, that doesn't look good.", False groaned at the sight. 

EX said nothing. They were withing 2-3 blocks of the given coordinates, so where was X...? Evil X noticed a shallow cliff at the side of the hill and jumped down, bracing his knees at the impact. He slightly brightened the settings on his visor so he could see better. A Zombie had locked onto him, but False was already on the case, so EX continued to look around. It was cold, and slippery ice was beneath his feet. Around him were a few dirt walls. 

" **Xisuma?** ", he asked into the night, only half raising his voice. He heard something shuffle. Or was it a mob? False joined him, having gotten rid of all the closest mobs. EX turned around by 360° once more, scanning his environment even more closely. 

At first he didn't see anything unusual, but then he noticed some odd blocks. Netherrack and some type of log. In the middle of a naturally generated dirt hill?

" **Oi, X?** " EX knocked against the log, crouching down.

Yes, there was definitely shuffling being heard. "H-Hello?", he heard a very tentative voice. It sounded weak and muffled, but it was definitely coming from the dirt wall.

Not Xisuma, though. 

"You found them?" False asked, full of worry. She stepped closer to the wall, taking out her shovel. "Scar, that you? We're coming!"

Evil X found a pickaxe in his inventory, and made short work of the netherrack. 

As soon as the blocks broke away, light flooded the area. 

There was a tiny space in the hill overhang beneath the dirt, just a few blocks wide. In the middle, a sea lantern provided its light. To the right and left, they could see two people as False and EX were peering into the cave from the outside. 

EX recognized the man on the left as Mr. GoodTimeWithScar, although it was weird seeing him in person instead of in a mirror like the past few days. He was in a sorry state, speckled with blood, shivering, and looking at them scared. However, EX's eyes were drawn to the other man. 

Xisuma. 

He was lying on the cold ground, not moving or even looking up. Most of his green armor he usually wore on his chest and shoulders was discarded, and he was wrapped in hastily put together, red-stained bandages. Scar's brown long coat was drawn over him, and a grey tabby cat was curled up squarely on his chest. Evil X furrowed his brows. He remembered that cat! It had bitten him last time he had been in Scars body. He tried to see Xisuma's face, but his helmet was turned away from where he was standing. 

Scar seemed in shock, but then saw False next to him. "False! Oh, thank god... You're here! I- what- mff-...." He was cut short by EX, who was starting to clamber trough the tiny hole they had made in the dirt wall.

" **Shoo!** ", he made to the cat as he tried to find some place for him to sit/crouch. If it had been a little 'short of space' before, it was positively cramped now. Evil Xisuma wasn't exactly small himself, and he was all in Scars face and sprewn half over Xisuma's legs. " **Hey, Xisuma! Answer me!** "

"What in the world-...?", Scar asked weakly, trying to push Evil X away from him, but not managing to accomplish much before he gave up. His cat hissed at EX as he came closer to X.

" **Stop it! He's my brother!** " Evil X was about to square up and pick a fight with the cat, when False pulled at his shoulders. 

"Oi, get out of there! They're hurt!" She didn't manage to move him, but did bring him out of balance so he had to brace himself against the wall to not fall over. "Scar, are you okay?" She asked her fellow hermit.

"I... what?" Scar was completely lost, distracted by Evil X who was still trying to reach Xisuma. 

By now, he was patting his helmet, trying to get him to wake up. 

" **Hey! Xisuma!** "

* * *

Xisuma was in all kinds of pain as he woke up. He had been phasing in and out of consciousness for quite a while, pain bringing him closer to the world, and his dizzyness and lightheadedness pushing him back into the darkness. He felt downright miserable. His shoulder was still the worst, but the additional pain of phantom flames licking at him and several new small wounds really was what brought him down. Especially that new stab wound near his ribs. 

He had no idea what was happening or how much time had passed. At some point, he noticed a weight on his chest, but despite everything, it wasn't unpleasant and rather comforted him. He was cold and hungry as well. 

Voices drifted to him, although he was too dazed to make out any of them. He tried his hardest to stay awake and open his eyes, but kept slipping into the darkness. His consciousness was patchy at best. 

" **...uma. X... ma-** "

That sounded like his name. Was someone calling him?

He felt his head being shaken from side to side. It made him dizzy, and he tried to lock his neck muscles against the movement, resisting the force. With great effort, he managed to open his eyes.

Everything was incredibly blurry, and dark splotches danced across his vision. The world was spinning around rapidly, which was probably due to someone still shaking at his helmet. Xisuma let out a pained groan in disagreement, and the shaking finally stopped. He sighed out a shaky breath, relieved. His eyelids fluttered as he tried to focus. Above him, a single face filled his view. A dark metal helmet, visor blackened and reflecting the typical cool light of a sea lantern. Red lights were glowing behind the visor, trained directly at him. A familiar voice was speaking to him, stringing together sentence after sentence that Xisuma's brain had no chance of keeping up with. 

_Evil Xisuma._

Someone else was talking, and EX was drawn back a bit by a gloved hand. He looked behind himself in annoyance, then turned back to X. 

" **Xisuma?** "

"Y-...Yeah...", X weakly brought out. He squeezed his eyes shut as the pain in his shoulder flared up again, washing over him and making him fear he would pass out again. 

"Xisuma! You're awake!" That was definitely Scar's voice. 

Straining, Xisuma turned his head around just enough to take a look at Scar. The builder looked smaller than usual, probably because he was just in a plain shirt and missing his dress shirt and coat. X noticed the coat was still draped over him. As was Scar's cat, Jellie. _Huh? When did she get here?_ Last time he was awake, he remembered messing with his communicator before... well, what happened? Xisuma couldn't remember. He just knew that half his body was still in pain. Also, did he ever manage to fix whatever was going on with their accounts? He needed to have a look as quickly as possible. 

"X, we're here. It's gonna be fine." , another voice said, much gentler. Xisuma's attention snapped upwards and he saw familiar long blonde hair. False was looking down at him, standing in some sort of entrance of the little dirt cave they were in. He couldn't quite make out her face, since he still had trouble focusing, but she sounded both worried and trying to be reassuring. 

His gaze wandered back to EX. His brother. Of course X couldn't see his face, but he could tell by his whole body language EX was angry. He was still hovering over him, half crouching, half sitting on his legs. 

" **Xisuma, what are you doing? Why are you all hurt and pathetic?** " EX scoffed at his state, but sounded worried at the same time. " **Here i am, going trough all this-** " he gesticulated towards False behind him. " **-just to get here, because you somehow? Got lost? And now you can't even get up? I expected better of you, Xisuma. This isn't like you at all. Seriously, what are you doing?** "

"Whoah, hey... Give him some space, Evil X." False interrupted him, pulling at EX's shoulders to tear him away from Xisuma. Seeing one of the hermits interacting with EX so casually was surreal to the admin. EX resisted her grip, though, ignoring her. "This is... wait, hold on." She took out her shovel and started to make short work out of the rest of the dirt wall so all of them would have more space. 

"Uhm...", X mumbled, still trying to make sense out of everything. He was feeling horrible and could barely keep a coherent thought. What exactly was Evil X accusing him of? He made even less sense than usual. 

" **And even before that-...** ", EX started again, his distorted voice ringing in X's ears. " **You left me all alone! What did you think?!** "

* * *

False was helplessly overwhelmed. Yes, they had found Xisuma and Scar, but they were in a horrible state. Scar was shivering and trembling, and False could see several cuts and gashes bleeding profusely trough his shirt. He seemed weakened. What happened to him? However, at least he was awake, something she couldn't really say about X. 

Evil Xisuma had managed to wake the admin up and get to him, but the strained murmuring she heard from the usually so well-spoken man had only fueled her worry. She also saw an awful lot of blood on the cave floor. And now Scar was looking at her expectantly, and Evil X was ranting about something or another to a half-conscious Xisuma, and X was still bleeding, and it was cold and dark and full of mobs, and there was a cat in there somewhere, and EX blocked her way to get to Xisuma properly...

It was all a bit much. 

False took a long, deep breath, mentally steeling and focusing herself. 

_One thing at a time, right?_ Panicking wouldn't get her anywhere, and it especially wouldn't help her friends. 

And they really needed her help now, so she had to be strong and get her thoughts on order.

_Okay, what's first?_

False looked between Evil X and X, but the red-armored of the two of them didn't make any attempts to hurt his brother. She still didn't like how he was hovering over Xisuma, though. He was hurt, he needed some space, and, even more so, medical help. She had removed half the wall by now, so she could finally squeeze herself into the tight space between Scar and X and EX.

She quickly rummaged trough her inventory, pulling out an enderchest. _Food. Then potions. Then bandages._

"False, I am so glad you are here...", Scar began. He sounded like he was barely keeping his teeth from clattering due to the cold. 

"Scar, how are you?" False crouched down to Scar, taking off her jacket to wrap it around his shoulders. He gratefully took it, drawing it close around himself. 

"Im cold, and hungry, and-... oh, False, i don't even know where to start..." Tears were flowing from his eyes and False was quick to wrap him in a tight hug, which he leaned into heavily. 

"Hey, hey. Scar, it's gonna be fine. I'm here. Evil X is helping me-" She shot a sideways glance to EX over Scar's shoulder, which he caught onto. "-and we're gonna get you back home, okay?"

Scar nodded and sniffled into her shoulder. 

"Now, first i'll get you some food, then i will help X, okay?"

Another nod, and Scar tightened his grip on her back, seemingly not wanting to let go.

She stayed like this for a few more seconds, then gently unwrangled herself from his grip and plopped down the enderchest near where they were. 

_Okay False, first things first._

"Scar, here is some food first. Can you eat?" She chucked him the stack of golden carrots she had been holding in her hotbar. 

He nodded weakly, grabbing the food. "Yeah. Xisuma needs it more than me, though."

"Eat. I have more. Also, I'm not sure X is in any state to eat, so let me just look trough here..." She opened up her enderchest, looking for potions. She heard Scar eat next to her, which made her sigh in relief. At least one of them wasn't in a life-threatening condition. 

"Oh, i really needed that...", Scar muttered, mouth full of carrot. 

Finally, False managed to produce a stray potion of healing from one of her shulker boxes, mentally beating herself up that this was apparently the only one she had. Well, it had to do. 

Next, she had to take care of Evil X. 

She had been ignoring him for a while, but the man was in a full-on rant. He was holding X by his shoulders, while the admin was still blinking at him blearily, obviously trying hard to keep it together. False doubted he actually registered anything EX was telling him right now. She sighed as he continued on, not picking up on the fact that his brother was currently on a sound path to bleeding out. 

" **And another thing!** " He threw up his hands, still seated on Xisuma's shins. Jellie, who was still centered on X's chest, hissed at his every movement. " **I got this done to my face, and you didn't even ask about it! I could've gotten seriously hurt! I mean, i was, but the point is, you don't even care. Oh and remember when-** " He interrupted himself to put a hand on X's helmet, softly shaking it. " **Xisuma, are you listening to me? This is serious! Look at m-** "

He was thrown off again, this time by Jellie sinking her teeth into his gloved hand. " **Ouch! Not again!** " He drew at his hand, looking at the cat angrily. " **You!** " He pointed at her accusingly, which earned him another claw swipe from her. " **What are you doing? He is-** "

"Ex, Ex, can i talk to you for a second?", False interrupted him and put a hand on his shoulder, making him turn around. 

" **What?!** "

"Dude, seriously? Xisuma is still bleeding, he needs medical attention."

Evil Xisuma stared at her for a beat, then down at X, considering. He hesitated just a second to long to be serious about his next sentence. " **He needs to listen to me, that's what he is.** ", he grumbled lowly, but did lean back somewhat to allow False to crouch down next to X's head. " **I wanted to talk to him for more than a year now, I'm not gonna let this-** " he waved over Xisuma's body, still lying on the floor. " **-let me keep from talking to him and making him answer for himself.** "

False growled, annoyed. Was this really the time to have some sort of serious brotherly talk with X? This was proving to be more difficult than she thought. She chewed on her lip, considering. _Alright, time to try and reason with him._ Silently, she wondered if she could just command him to do something after defeating him earlier, but she didn't want to push her luck either. "Alright, i can see that.", she started slowly, reassuringly. "But he won't be able to listen to you when he is dead, and respawn is a little messed up at the moment so i think we would all prefer it if he didn't die now."

EX seemed to be a bit taken aback by her words. She was finally getting trough to him, it seemed. He was silent for a moment, staring between her and X. 

" **He's not gonna _die_.**"

"Not if you let me help him, he won't."

" **He's never died before! I mean he has, but he can't die now! Not from this!** "

False skipped on a sarcastic comment for now, because obviously EX wasn't talking about respawning. She also knew the two of them had more history than most of the hermits knew. She ignored his comment for now, instead trying another approach. 

"Actually, Evil X, i really need your help. Can you do me a favor?"

" **No.** ", he immediately defaulted. " **What kinda 'favor'?** "

"There's a lot of mobs outside, could you take care of them? I'll even let you have your sword back."

" **Really?** " He sounded excited suddenly. " **Wait, what about Xisuma?** "

"I'll help him, don't worry.", she said gently. Then, she held out his diamond sword. "What do you say?"

He looked at X, tilting his head ever so slightly. " **I'll help you, for now, i guess.** "

He reached for the diamond sword, and False hesitated a moment before she let go of it. She still didn't exactly trust him, but to be honest, she didn't have much of a choice. The mobs _were_ a real concern, and she estimated by now they would have noticed the light from the sea lantern and started gathering around the cave, coming closer. Scar was in no condition to fight, even though he did finally stop shivering so much, and if she wanted to properly help X she couldn't have half her attention on the Mobs behind her. And Evil X was a good fighter, despite losing to her earlier. 

So she sternly looked him in the eyes and nodded, before finally letting him take the sword. He immediately swiveled around and stormed out of the cave, growling curses at the mobs while he threw himself at the first Zombie. 

False sighed. _So, that's that._

She finally turned back to Xisuma, who was breathing raggedly. 

As she leaned over him, Jellie mewed at her, staring at her in suspicion. She reached out with her hand to let Jellie sniff it. "It's okay, I'm here to help him." Jellie meowed again. "I need to move you, is that ok?" False slowly wrapped her hands around the cat and lifted her, gently placing her in Scars lap instead. Jellie let it happen, snuggling into Scar instead. Satisfied to not have gotten scratched - because she saw how protective Jellie had gotten earlier - False turned back.

"Hey, X, are you awake?", she asked softly, potion bottle in hands. 

He blinked at her, squinting. "...sort of?" came the muttered answer. False huffed in bittersweet amusement, running her eyes over the admin to check his injuries. 

His shoulder was heavily bandaged, with what she guessed used to be a white shirt. It was now stained red, so she would probably have to re-do it. She pulled back Scar's coat to see what else was happening. She couldn't see much trough his black shirt, but it was soaked with blood on his chest and a smaller amount on his stomach. His arms had several cuts and bruises, and she wondered where he had gotten them. Well, that would have to wait for later. 

"Xisuma, i have a healing potion, but you need to sit up to drink it. Can you manage that?"

"Uh..." X looked around a little helplessly, then, slowly, moved his arms up to try and prop himself up. He did manage to lift himself up a little bit, but then faltered in pain. "Oh, ouch, ouch..."

False winced in sympathy, and carefully wrapped her arms around his back, providing support. With a bit of shuffling and more pained noises from X, they managed to prop him up in a somewhat sitting position against the back wall. He sighed in relief, closing his eyes.

"Hey, X, stay awake for me, okay? Look at me.", False asked him after he still didn't open them again after a few seconds. 

He blinked again, trying to focus on her. "...Yeah. Right."

"Is it okay if i... take off your helmet? You know, so you can drink." She held up the potions bottle. He was still out of it, but False had a lot of respect for him so she figured it would be best to ask. 

"...Sure.", was his answer, so False set down the bottle and set her hands on both side of his helmet. After her earlier experience with EX - who was still outside fighting mobs - she figured she just needed to tug at it gently. And, sure enough, after a bit of too-careful prying the helmet finally slid off of X's face. 

It was the first time False really saw him up close without the helmet. His short brown hair was sticking to his sweaty face, and he had dark bags under his eyes. He looked pale. His eyes were a striking purple, almost glowing a little. False shivered slightly. The Scar across his face seemed even more prominent in the harsh light of the sea lantern, and she noticed his chin and cheeks were littered with dozens of smaller scars, some almost invisible, some casting shadows on his skin.

"Can you breathe?" She asked, uncorking the potions bottle. 

"Not for long, but 't should be fine.", X whispered.

False nodded and lifted the bottle to his lips, helping him drink the entire amount of the glowy purple liquid. When he was done, she hurried to get his helmet back on his head. X nodded at her gratefully, closing his eyes as the potions effect started to set in. He sighed in relief.

While he was (hopefully) healing, False plucked some spare wool and string from her enderchest, than started to unwrap the scraggy bandages that were wrapped around X's shoulder. His shirt had a long tear in it, and when she finally removed the last piece of bandage, she saw a heavy gash in his shoulder, slowly starting to knit itself together due to the healing effect of the potion. She watched it for a second, finding it didn't heal up all the way and still stayed as a substantial injury, although at least the bleeding was stilled and it was a lot smaller than before. 

She startled as she heard a loud, bone-shattering and -rattling noise and some yelling from the outside. " **A-ha, take that, you bloody skeleton! Didn't see that coming, huh? Evil X is back on the server and stronger than ever!** "

She chuckled weakly before turning back to X. He was drawing grimaces as the feeling of his wounds slowly closing, and she tugged at his shirt. "Can you take this off, if you don't mind? I would like to have a look at that other wound."

X tucked his chin to chis chest, trying to look down at his shirt. The black fabric was cut at his shoulder and torn at the seams, and had dirt and blood crusted all over it. He let out a small disgruntled huff. "Don't think there's much hope left for that anyways..." His words were still a little slurred and his voice a little hoarse, but he sounded a lot more stable. 

False nodded, taking the hint and carefully started to cut off his shirt with her sword. Besides some smaller cuts, he had what seemed to be the partially-healed remainder of a stab wound on his side. _Weird_ , False noted, _his shirt was still on once piece at that spot, wasn't it?_ Nevertheless, she removed the last bits of the fabric and then got to work on wrapping Xisuma up in new, tightly tied bandages. 

It took her a while. Xisuma seemed to slowly get his bearings trough the process, and started to look at least a little more lively. A little bit of color returned to his cheeks, and he was looking around himself a lot more animatedly, even though he didn't say anything for the moment. Scar was silent as well, petting Jellie with long, calming strokes. She was purring, and False could only assume it was thanks to her that Scar started to calm down as well, now that False was here to take care of them. 

When she was done, False wiped her hands off on her pants, and watched as X was gingerly pulling himself up into a more sitting position, wincing at every movement. 

"How is it?", she asked him, still worried. 

He looked over himself, softly patting the bandages on his chest, then looked back at False. "Do you have my communicator?"

"Huh?" She looked around, quickly locating the object in question on the floor and handing it to X. "Here you go, why?"

"I need to... need to fix this-..." His voice trailed off, sounding exhausted and loopy as he opened up the communicator and what False knew to be admin screens were projected out in front of him. 

"Dude, seriously?", she asked incredulously, swiping the device from his hands again. 

"Hey!", he complained, reaching out, but then grabbed his head as he faltered. "Ugh... dizzy..."

"You're just as bad as your brother! You can barely sit up straight! Fix this later. First, eat something." She handed him more Golden Carrots from her Enderchest.

"What? No! This is urgent-...", he protested weakly, being forced to grab the stack of food False was shoving at him. He looked conflicted between the carrots and his communicator in Falses hand.

"It can still be urgent tomorrow when we're back home; now _eat_. What's your health?"

Xisuma checked his health. Regret flashed over his face. Instead of answering False, he purposefully looked away from her and tugged off his helmet once more to eat. 

" _X~_ , what's your health?", she asked him again, more pointed. 

"Mmmmhh all good, all good.", he answered in a high-pitched voice that signaled that all was, in fact, not good. At least he scarfed down several carrots, then pulled the helmet over his head again as his breath was getting short.

"I swear to god, you people...", False grumbled under her breath. Her scorn was cut short as she heard a sharp yelp and a " **Owch!! Stupid skeletons!** " from EX from the outside.

At the same time, Scar and X startled, both grabbing their thigh in pain. 

"Ow, ow... doesn't this ever stop?", Scar complained, poking at his leg. To her confusion, False saw that a small wound had appeared. 

She looked over to Xisuma. He was rubbing his leg as well. In the same place. This was. _Odd_. What just happened?

"Does... what end?", False asked, very slowly. The gears in her head began to turn, trying to piece something together she couldn't quite understand yet. However, she could already tell that she didn't like it. 

"Uh, this may be a little weird....", Scar hesitated, holding Jellie closer to his chest. 

"This is already so goddamn weird, just lay it on me.", False chuckled weakly. 

"Okay so, apparently me, X, and Iskall are... connected somehow. When one of us gets hurt, the others also get the wound - but apparently don't lose any health?" He tugged his shirt to the side to show her the gash at his shoulder, which was mostly a dark scab by now, and then waved his hands towards X's shoulder which False had bandaged earlier. Which had the exact same injury, but deeper. 

"Hold on....", False murmured, staring wildly between Scar and X.

"Also, our usernames are all garbled.", Scar added. "And so is Iskall's... Do you know if anything happened to him? We thought, maybe he was in a fight, since we had like... stab wounds and cuts, and it felt like flame enchants going trough me..." He shuddered at the memory. "Is he okay?"

"Iskall? He's..." False trailed off. Iskall was with Mumbo, safely in Grian's base. No way he would have gotten into a fight with anyone right now. But, she did remember someone receiving stab wounds and cuts earlier, and being set on fire several times. By her. Someone who also had a garbled username showing up in chat. 

Her stomach dropped. 

"I..." False covered her mouth in horror, eyes widening as she realized. _What did i do?_ Scar looked at her, questioning. Her gaze wandered over to Xisuma. "X, i am s-"

However, she was cut short by quickly approaching footsteps and incoherent shouting from the outside. 

"A-HA! THERE'S THAT STUPID FOOL! KERALIS, FLAME HIM!"


	30. False is fed up / X is being carried by his team

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw my tumblr is @ambered-glazed-sheep if you wanna talk to me... 👀

" **Augh! What?! What are you idiots doing? Stop it!** "

"What are you doing here, Evil Shishwammy?! Up to no good?"

"ATTACK!"

" **What did you just call me?** "

False was on her feet as soon as she recognized the voices, sprinting out of the cave onto the open field where Evil Xisuma had been fighting against the mobs of the night. Sure enough, Bdubs was barreling out of the spruce forest towards EX, Keralis following closely behind. Apparently they had finally caught up to them. EX was facing them, taking on a fighting stance and shifting his sword in his hands. Bdubs had his axe out, now only a few blocks away from being in attacking range. 

He sprinted forwards a few more steps and leapt off towards EX, axe raised high. Bdubs let out a loud battle cry, before the diamond of his axe clashed with EX's sword, sparks tearing trough the night sky. Keralis behind him had a bow in hand, drawing back an arrow on the string and taking aim. 

" **Oh if you wanna fight, you can have that!** ", EX growled, jumping back to get out of Bdub's range and twirling his sword around once. 

"Bring it on, then! Leave our server alone!", Bdub's responded, pointing his axe at him.

EX sneered at him. " **What now, should i bring it on or leave you alone? Get your story straight**!" He lowered his stance, readying his sword, and then charged. 

Bdub's had trouble keeping away from EX, but swung his axe just as valiantly. A misplaced arrow from Keralis almost hit the builder, after which Keralis let his bow sink down and switched to his sword as well, although he seemed hesitant to fight. Evil X just about ducked under another swing from the axe. In her inner eye, False already saw him getting hit, hurting Xisuma and Scar in the process... She couldn't allow that. So she doubled her efforts to reach the fighters as quickly as possible. Evil Xisuma stumbled backwards after blocking a blow from Bdubs. The builder saw his chance, raising his axe even higher before letting it fall down like a miniature guillotine. 

"GUYS, STOP!", False shouted, quite literally throwing herself between Bdubs and EX. She expertly caught Bdub's wrist with her hand, stopping his axe just centimeters away from her helmet. At the same time, she held her other hand out behind her, signalling EX to stay back. 

"Ah! False?!", Bdubs yelled in confusion. Keralis came to an halt behind him, panting heavily.

"Don't... don't attack him. He's helping us.", she explained, a little out of breath. She let Bdub's wrangle away his arm from her after he had understood what just happened, letting his axe sink down. 

He looked between EX and False. "Are you sure, False?" He was out of breath, as well. False could tell from his expressions that he didn't trust EX in the slightest. He seemed like he would charge back at the helmeted man at any given chance.

"Yeah, look into his eyes! He means nothing good.", Keralis agreed, hiding behind Bdubs. He seemed relieved that he didn't actually have to fight against EX. 

" **You're no one to talk about eyes to me!** ", Ex answered accusingly. False silently agreed, but ignored him. 

"Look, Bdubs, you know i met EX in the nether and kicked his ass.", she started her explanation, trying to keep it short, because she really wanted to get Scar and Xisuma home right now. "He's helping me now."

" **HEy! You're making it sound like im some kind of loser who is now on your side!** "

False shushed him. 

"Then why does he have his sword back? He must have betrayed you!" Bdub's still didn't trust him, glancing left and right from false to see what EX was doing.

"No, i gave it to him so he could get rid of all the mobs around here." She turned around to EX, looking at him pointedly. She swore she could practically see his eyes rolling behind his helmet as he put away his sword, presenting his empty hands. 

" **There, satisfied? I'm helping... for today.** " The last word was muttered so quietly Keralis and Budubs must have missed it, but False, who stood closer, gave him another glare. 

"There _are_ a lot of mobs around here, Bubbles..." Keralis chimed in, looking around the area. "Maybe Evil-shwamy isn't so bad."

False already heard EX take a breath to disagree with that whole sentence and rolled her eyes. He was a little annoying, to be fair. "Look, X really needs out help, so _can it_ with the fighting.", she demanded. She glared at all three of them, then turned around and jogged back to the small cave. She didn't immediately hear yelling or fighting noises, so that had to do for now. She really couldn't deal with all this right now, not when people were hurt. 

Scar had helped X to sit up properly, and Xisuma was eating more Golden Carrots again. Good.

"Guys, are you ready to head back? No need to stay here longer than we have to. X, how are you feeling?"

X once more put his helmet back on, then opened and closed his hands as if to see if he still hand control over them. "A little out of it.", he admitted, looking up to False. "But I think I'll manage."

"How about you, Scar?" False turned to the builder. 

He was still wrapped in her jacket, and was currently pulling himself up on the dirt wall. He swayed a bit, but managed to stay on his feet with the support of the nearby wall. Jellie was at his feet, rubbing herself gently against his legs. "I'm okay.", he answered. "I wanna get out of here, False."

She nodded, noticing that Bdubs, Keralis and EX had joined them behind her. Now, what would be the best course of action to get back?

"We need to get back to IDEA since that's the closest Nether portal, but X and Scar are in no condition to fly." No disagreements so far, so she continued: "Ex, can you help Scar?" She still had her doubts about him, so having him support Scar on their way back was probably her best bet to keep him busy and prevent him from attacking or running off. "Keralis and Bdubs, could you look out for mobs? I'll carry X."

"Carry me?", X piped up, looking shocked. "Don't worry about me, i can walk on my own!"

False gave him the most exasperated look. She waved her hand at him, in a ' _go on then, show me_ ' kind of gesture. 

He began to prop himself up, pushing himself up on the dirt wall of the small cave. For a moment it seemed like it would work, he was wavering but on his feet, but then suddenly his knees gave in. He would have crashed to the floor if False hadn't caught him in time, fully having expected this. 

"Ugh...", he muttered, holding his head as False held him. He had his head in his hands, his world spinning. "Alright, so, i may just be a little dizzy still... should be better in a second..."

By now, False was fed up with both Xisumas and EX's shenanigans. Without much further fuss, she hoisted X up with relative ease, putting him into a sort of piggyback position on her back so his injuries wouldn't be jostled too much. Xisuma gave a small startled 'oh' and the others gasped, and False couldn't help but feel a little smug about it. X was tall, and he was _heavy_ , but she made it seem like he weighed almost nothing to her. Which, to be fair, wasn't far from the truth. She was one of the physically stronger hermits, after all, and prided herself on that. He was definitely heavy and slowed her down, but she would have no troubles carrying him to IDEA.

X fidgeted on her back a little, obviously embarassed at the situation. It looked quite comical as well, a huge dude like X being carried by False. False was not exactly short either, and her muscles were clearly showing now that she wasn't wearing her jacket over her arms, but X was one of the tallest among the hermits, and definitely one of the more muscular ones. Of course he was embarassed, but he also knew better than to disagree with False on being carried. Especially as he still had dark spots dancing across his vision whenever he moved his head, and he had a feeling in his stomach like he could pass out again any second. 

Scar and Keralis stared at her in awe. EX was also impressed, but he showed this by grumbling insults and sulking, purposefully turning away from them and walking over to Scar. Scar looked at him a little scared, and startled when EX grabbed his wrist, but the helmeted man just pulled his arm over his shoulder to support Scar. 

" **'m not doing this for you, is that clear?** ", he muttered.

Scar nodded, leaning onto him. His injuries might be mostly healed, but he was still weak and a little lightheaded. But with someone to lean on in case he stumbled, he would be able to make his way back. 

X, having wrapped his arms around Falses shoulders, snorted. "Who are you doing it for, then? You're just scared of False." Even in his current state, he couldn't help himself to poke a little fun at his brother. 

Ex whipped around, pulling Scar with him, who yelped in surprise. " **I'm not _scared_ of her! And remember X, we still have a lot to talk about when we get back!**"

X's expression turned sad. "Yeah, i know.", he answered, softly. 

Keralis kept an eye out for mobs at the front, and Bdubs did the same in the back, although admittedly he was more focused on watching Evil X instead. The group then finally left the small dirt overhang behind and started their trek trough the nightly spruce forest, in a straight line for IDEA.

* * *

Xisuma was a little uncomfortable on False's back, but there was nothing he could really do about it. He still felt loopy, to be quite honest. Every step from False made his view bob up and down, and the world still seemed to be spinning around him. Had he really lost that much blood?

To be fair, after being bandaged properly and having a health potion and some food, he felt days better than before. He still had a headache, but he was starting to be able to think straight again. Maybe the missing danger of bleeding out or being attacked by mobs or leaving Scar defenseless helped, as well. And the prospect of finally getting back home instead of being stuck in a dirt cave. 

He locked his arms in front of Falses neck, making sure she had enough freedom of movement and he wasn't strangling her by accident or anything. Tired, he rested his head on her shoulder, closing his eyes. It helped against the nauseous feeling in his stomach, and Falses steady and repetitive steps calmed him down. She and EX were arguing about some thing or another, bickering back and forth. Xisuma was too exhausted to keep up with the conversation, but it wasn't anything serious as they tried to keep their voices down. 

Seeing EX on the server and interacting with the other hermits still was surreal to him. Especially considering Evil X was - more or less - voluntarily helping out Scar, even slowing down when he noticed he couldn't keep up. Was this the same EX he left behind all these years ago? The same EX he banned about a year ago?

Xisuma couldn't help but feel guilt crawling up his spine. 

Did he even know his brother, or what had become of him?

He groaned lowly into his helmet. What had he been thinking? Banning EX without even so much as a word to him really hadn't been his best move, to put it lightly. He felt bad. Sure, he had been wrapped up in his own projects, and there was always something going on on the server, and at the time he had had a lot of admin work to do as well, but that really wasn't an excuse. Evil X had all rights to chew him out, and Xisuma promised himself he would listen. 

"X, are you alright?", False asked, stopping momentarily. 

"Yeah, just keep going.", he mumbled, not lifting his head.

She hesitated for a second. "Okay, but don't pass out on me, will ya?"

He snorted in amusement, and she took that as a signal to keep moving. He heard the occasional mob, a zombie grunt or a spider's hiss, but they were always silenced with a quick sword whack, presumably from Keralis and Bdubs. Other than that, it was mostly quiet. 

Another thing was nagging at Xisuma's mind: The fact that there was still something horribly wrong with the server, or at least some of their accounts as far as he could tell. He was pretty sure it was connected to that one time a week ago when they all had died at the same time, but he would really need to dig deep into the admin logs for that. Reading to the logs was never fun exactly, but he was also itching to fix this. He had tried to read the logs earlier, but he really couldn't remember anything he saw. Probably due to bleeding out at the time, but this was important, right? X knew that False and Scar had been absolutely right in not letting him continue, but a part of him still wanted to work on the problem right now. 

His memory of the last week was... weird. He had his whole memory back now, but to look back on the past week where he had been amnesiac was tripping him up. Thinking back of it, some of the things he did or said to other hermits would have been pretty weird. The conversation with Mumbo on top of Sahara came to mind. Or him talking to a hurt Iskall, unable to help him. Or his conversation with Evil X when he had been possessing Scar in the spruce forest. Looking back, it was almost comical: EX being on the server for the first time in years, but Xisuma having no memory of him at all. Once more, he sighed, and decided to delay these thoughts to a later day. He was tired, exhausted. What time was it anyways? 

* * *

As the group continued on, X almost dozed off, until the sharp sounds of rockets came to his ears. He opened his eyes, his head snapping up. They were just stepping out of the forest, the IDEA building coming into sight. He realized False had taken a detour, avoiding the pillager outpost near the IDEA build. Evil X was still behind them, and Keralis and Bdubs had run ahead to dispatch of the occasional zombie on the open field between them and the entrance. Xisuma looked up to see where the rockets sounds had come from. He could see two figures flying in a circle above them, slowing down before finally landing. 

It was Cub and Doc. 

"Xisuma!", Doc shouted as he was jogging over to them. 

Xisuma smiled weakly and waved his hand a little.

"Hey, Doc!", False answered for him. 

"Oh wow, what happened? Xisuma, you look terrible!" Doc had noticed the sorry state X was in and walked around him and False. 

False gently set him down. X managed to stay on his feet by holding onto her shoulder, but his knees felt a little like pudding. Doc was quickly there to support him, as well. 

"You got your memory back?", he asked him, cybernetics glowing red in the darkness. 

"Yeah." Xisuma nodded. "I'm... I'm sorry about all the trouble i caused." Doc was the one who picked him up in the first place, after all.

The half-creeper waved his hand dismissively. "Save it, 'Sisuma. You always do the same for us."

False had just finished stretching out her arms and turned back to the two men. "Alright, lets discuss this later. Let's just go back, okay?"

Both of them agreed. False attempted to get Xisuma on her back again, and immediately an argument about who was going to carry X broke out between her and Doc. All attempts to calm them from Xisuma were ignored. 

Meanwhile, Cub had taken Scar out of EX's hands and hugged him tightly. X couldn't quite make out their conversation, but Scar was sobbing for a while until Cub managed to calm him down. EX had joined False and Doc in their endeavor to gain 'Xisuma carrying rights'. Xisuma ended up being supported by both False and Doc, each having an arm wrapped around his shoulder. Evil X was, once more, sulking they didn't let him help. 

With the help of his friends, Xisuma managed to stumble trough IDEA and into the nether portal. 

* * *

The way back to the main hub trough the tunnels was a long one. They couldn't fly while carrying X and Scar in such a tight space, and no one wanted to leave the group to speed ahead, so they just had this big group of 8 people squeezing themselves between the ice road and the walls. False explained Doc and Cub what had been happening, and they asked Xisuma and Scar all sorts of questions about their wellbeing, most of which X answered with just a tired nod or head shake. 

Finally, after what felt like hours, the central nether hub came closer. X's legs felt like lead, and he was more carried by False and Doc to his sides than his own feet at this point. Suddenly, he tripped when False came to an abrupt halt. 

"Mumbo? Iskall? What's-... what's going on?"

X looked up. At the side of the tunnel, just before it connected to the main hub, the three architechs were sitting on the floor. Or rather, Iskall was sitting on the floor, while Mumbo was crouching next to him and Grian fidgeted around. 

"Grian, what happened?", Doc asked as well, worried. "I'm sorry we went ahead without you earlier, but..."

"Iskall suddenly got hurt, so we had to take a break and rest.", Mumbo explained, frowning. "I... I don't really know what happened there... We wanted to leave but he suddenly had these wounds... He still wanted to go but after we got into the nether it just got a bit much and we forced him to eat first."

"I told you Mumbo, I'm fine!" Xisuma could see Iskalls shirt was stained red in several places, but he was mostly still sitting on the floor because Mumbo had grabbed his shoulders and prevented all attempts to get up.

"Iskall, i'm sorry.", Xisuma started, waiting for the swede to pick up eye contact with him. "I promise, i will look into this as soo-"

"Xisuma! You're back!", Iskall exclaimed, happiness spreading over his face. He jumped up, just a little more careful than usual, and threw himself onto Xisuma. And, by expansion, False and Doc. They swayed on their feet a little, but managed to sustain balance as X unwrangled one of his arms and put it around Iskall, laughing quietly at his enthusiasm.

Mumbo came closer as well, hesitantly joining the hug. "Yeah man, you really had us worried! Got your memory back as well?" Xisuma barely had space to nod, overwhelmed with emotion.

"Group hug!!" He heard a yell from Grian, immediately followed by him jumping on and toppling the pile of hermits. 

"I- ow, careful-..!" X winced at the pressure on his injuries, but couldn't help but laugh. 

"Yay! Lets all hug!" That was definitely Bdub's voice. 

"Shashwamy is back! Come on, Evilshwamy! You too!"

" **I don't-... Umpf-!** " Evil X was cut short as Keralis pulled him into the hug. 

"Wait, who's having a group hug without us? Jerks!" That was definitely Tango from the distance. X heard three rockets being fired before more familiar faces came into his vision. He laid on his back, mostly smushed under a giant pile of hermits. Tango, Zedaph and Impulse approached them, grinning up to their ears. 

"Glad to have you back, man!", Impulse agreed.

Zedaph waved over to the other two hermits in the tunnel. "And Cub and Scar!"

X heard Scar laugh, and Jellie meow. He was pulled out from under the pile, and while all the hermits were chattering over each other and trying to untangle themselves he thought, _maybe everything will be fine after all._


	31. Vwoop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know this chapter is a little tedious, but bear with me! after everything, it can't be that easy, right?

Xisuma woke up early on the next day. 

It was barely dawn, the night sky still hanging over the server, with only a little bit of pink peeking trough near the horizon. 

The admin sat up in his bed, struggling a little to wrangle his legs out from under Evil X without disturbing him. His brother was curled up on the lower end of X's bed, still asleep. Xisuma let his eyes wander trough the room. It was an absolute mess, but the quietness of the early morning and the fact that he _knew_ the people strewn across the room made it into a sight of beauty. He felt... soft. Hermits were scattered around, most of them in beds, some on the floor. They were all still asleep. Blankets, pillows, and discarded armor and clothes added to the chaos. 

Xisuma smiled gently, lifting the visor of his helmet to rub the sleep out of his eyes. Someone had left him a plain black shirt next to his bed, so he quickly pulled it over his head and the bandages still wrapped around his shoulder and chest.

After they had joined with the hermits they had found in the nether, the whole group had made their way back trough the portal in Grians base. Every single one of them refused to leave. In Grian's base, they had found Cleo, Stress, Ren and Joe. Ren had been preparing some food, but hadn't really expected so many people. But everyone pulled out some supplies from somewhere, so it was fine. Jevin had joined them after he had read in the chat that they were back, relieved that everyone was back home. Even TFC had showed up, docking onto the base in a small boat. Later that night Xisuma realized that this was now quite literally everyone currently on the server. 

There had been a lot of talking and explaining. Grian and Doc recapped the events of the past few days, with help from Cub and occasionally Iskall. Scar and X had been smothered in warm blankets, basically drowned in the potions Mumbo had brought from Impulse, and had been given a cup of hot cocoa each. Xisuma was glad he didn't have to do much explaining, because honestly, he had been absolutely exhausted. It had been pretty late as well, considering he and Scar had apparently spent the better part of the night in a dirt cave in the middle of nowhere. Evil Xisuma had started to randomly rifle trough Grians shulker boxes at some point, refusing to take part in any more hermit group huddles, but False had watched him closely, so it was fine. Xisuma wondered what exactly had happened between them. 

Finally, when everything was roughly explained and Scar and X had stopped shivering, everyone had gone to bed. Of _course_ everyone wanted to stay. As Grian had feared, the fourth floor of his base really did become a giant sleepover. Beds were provided, blankets were being shared, and cats were tucked into bed lovingly next to their exhausted owner. Everyone had been tired, and so it had taken the hermits no time at all to fall asleep.

Xisuma was in a bed at the edge of the sea of hermits, the same bed Grian and Doc had given him after they had found him without his memory. Next to his bed was Doc. His legs were still on a log he had used as a chair, his trident clasped in his hands across his lap, but his body was slumped over against the wall. X had no doubt he had tried to stay awake to keep watch over him and Evil Xisuma. The next bed over was Iskall's, and of course Mumbo and Grian had set up their beds right next to him. Iskall was still wrapped in bandages, but that didn't stop him from snoring heavily. X chuckled silently. Other than that, the Hermits were spread out fairly randomly, and it was hard for Xisuma to make out anything in particular. Zedaph, Impulse and Tango seemed to have turned into a giant knot of limbs, more on the floor than any bed. False was still in her diamond armor, sitting leaned against a bed post, but even she had fallen asleep. Scar was safely tucked into a heap of blankets, Cub sleeping in the bed next to him and Jellie lying near his head. 

The cat seemed to have noticed Xisuma being awake, as she raised her head to look at him. She silently yawned, before standing up - all without disturbing Scar - jumping down from his bed, and, after a quick stretch, silently trotted over to Xisuma. She took a moment to sniff at EX's hand that was hanging over the edge of the bed, clearly not amused, but then jumped up to X and curled up in his lap. He smiled and ran his hands over her soft, grey fur. He even took of his gloves after a second. They were kind of dirty and bloody anyways, so he dropped them next to his bed. Jellie let out a very low, content purr, and rested her head on her paws, eyes closing again. 

Xisuma had only had a few hours of sleep before he had woken up again. He felt way better, but despite his tiredness and slight headache, his mind was only concerned with him delving into the code as soon as possible and fixing the server. He propped himself up, putting a pillow between his back and the wall, blanket still draped over his crossed legs. It was very comfy, even though Evil Xisuma was still occupying a good third of his bed. He was curled up at the foot end like a cat himself. 

X sighed, silently. He would really love to have a nice cup of tea right now, but he didn't wanna wake up any of the others on his way trough Grians base, and he still had a big headache. His physical injuries had mostly healed with the help of potions and food, except some minor scratches and bruises that were left over, but he still hadn't quite recovered from losing that much blood. Besides that, the bed was nice and comfortable...

He straightened his back, determined to get to work. After a quick stretching of his neck and rolling of his shoulders, he took out his communicator. 

First of all, he had a look in the group chat. He was surprised to see that Bdubs had died in the pillager attack, and then again some time later, probably when he was walking back. Other than that, there was nothing really he needed to respond to. EX being annoying, hermits being worried, and finally Scar posting their coordinates. X had heard his recap the day before, how he had lost his communicator until Jellie had brought him back. He smiled, petting the cat in question behind her ears. Did he owe Jellie his life? After that, it was just hermits agreeing to meet and posting updates on the situation. At a certain point, the group chat had gone quiet, which was of course because all of the hermits had gathered in Grian's base and there was no reason to text anymore.

Xisuma then took particular interest in the garbled usernames he had seen here and there. 

They really didn't look good. Glitched out text always made his stomach drop as an admin. 

Upon closer inspection, he could actually decipher bits of the letters behind the mess. They seemed to be mashup's of each of their usernames, letters and syllables randomly torn apart and cobbled together. Scar's username came out as X̴̷͞i͠m̶̛͟͝͝a̡͘̕͠5̸̢̛W̴̧͞i͏̛͟t̶̨̨h̶̢, for example. Even Evil X's name was messed up. Xisuma hesitated. _How did EX get pulled into this?_ He assumed it was because Evil X originated from his own account, anyways. After all these years, he still had a fundamental connection to Xisuma in the code of his account. X opened a private channel to type in something without making the other hermit's communicators buzz. 

8̶̛͏Sca̡҉̷ŗ̷̴̢̕X̶i̷̴̕vo̴̴̷i̷d҉͢ : test

He grumbled at the sight. With a small sigh, he pulled off his helmet just to run his fingers trough his hair and to scratch the stubble that had started to grow on his chin, absent-mindedly. It seemed like it would take him a lot of work to untangle all of this, he could already tell. He put his helmet back in place when he felt Jellies fur rise up beneath his hands. 

Confused, he looked up, only to see Evil X rise from his sleep. He put his head up first, and Xisuma could see him sleepily blinking his eyes as he had turned off the red glow in his visor for sleeping. It flickered back on as he woke up properly and noticed Xisuma looking at him. EX slowly sat up, rubbing his neck which had probably been bent in a weird position if Xisuma knew anything about his sleeping habits. Jellie had her ears laid back against her head, staring at EX, a scowl on her face. Xisuma continued to pet her fur to calm her down. EX seemed like he was about to say something, but Xisuma put a finger up to his helmet, then pointed around the room. 

"Don't wake them.", he whispered, as silently as he could. 

Evil Xisuma leaned back offendedly, but then looked around the room full of sleeping hermits. He narrowed his eyes, then fiddled with some of the controls on the side of his own helmet. 

"What are _you_ up to?", he then muttered into X's general direction, accusingly. He had turned of whatever it was in his helmet that distorted his voice and made it darker, and by that also more piercing to the ears.

"Finally dropping the edge, aren't we?", Xisuma teased him, then turned serious again. "I'm fixing things. Trying to repair what went wrong with the accounts." He showed EX the garbled usernames. 

Evil X narrowed his eyes in return. He was growling like usual, but his voice still sounded sleepy. "Xisuma, we need to have a talk."

"I know, and we will. Just... let me work on this for a while first, okay?"

EX tilted his head, considering. 

"...As long as this isn't fixed, i think you'll get hurt every time one of us gets hurt." Xisuma hadn't actually confirmed that yet, but based on what False had been talking about... And it shpuld work to keep EX from straight up attacking him as well. As much as he didn't think he would do that, anyways.

For a second, EX was silent. "Ugh.", he then grunted, seemingly no wanting to deal with things like this so soon after waking up. EX was an early morning person just like Xisuma, but needed a little longer to be actually approachable after waking up. He peeled himself out of his blanket, then ignored his boots that stood on the floor and tapered away from the bed on his - curiously, pink - socks. Jellie and X watched him, intently. After a few steps, he reached his first obstacle: Ren, curled up on the floor. EX seemed to consider just stepping over and on top of him and the other hermits in his way, but then after a few moments of just staring at him decided to make his way around after all. He barely made any sound as he trotted trough the large concrete room, and Xisua couldn't help but smile. He did listen to him sometimes, after all. He watched as his brother tugged on his elytra wings to check their durability, then dropped trough the hole in the center of Grian's base. 

With a sense of calmness, Xisuma returned to his duties. He switched into the admin panel, finally. Part of him was dreading this, but it was something he had to do. The blue-ish screens were projected out in front of him, and X raised his hands onto the keyboard that had appeared, before he stopped. He gently scooped up Jellie - since he couldn't quite read the text that was projected onto her striped fur - and placed her down a little ways away on his bed. She stared at him indignantly, then jumped off the bed, slinking off to somewhere. Content, X had nothing left to do but delve into the code. 

First, the logs.

Xisuma opened up the server logs. Regular backups made sure he could access them backwards at any time, and he was glad about it. Instead of scrolling upwards, he simply typed in the day he was looking for: Six days ago. The day he had lost his memories. 

He scrolled trough the day. The log kept tab on the chat, as well as the status of the server and the automatic world backups. The father the day progressed, the more strained the server got. X guessed that a bunch of hemits had their farms running, and a lot of redstone contraptions were putting pressure on the server as well. It was worst in the afternoon, when everyone was busy. Xisuma himself had been in the end, raiding for Shulkers and other loot. He had been loading a lot of new areas, as well. The admin wasn't surprised when he saw more and more lag warnings throughout the day - not very pleasant, but still considered normal - but as he arrived at the late afternoon, he downright cringed at the sheer wall of red text that greeted him. That much lag was far from usual, even with all the redstoners among the hermits.

The warnings were getting more and more frequent, leading up to the point where they had all died. 

**[16:20:12] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 5703ms or 20 ticks behind

[16:25:34] [Server thread/INFO]: <Iskall85> Thank you dude!

[16:26:14] [Server thread/INFO]: <MumboJumbo> np! :)

**[16:45:23] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 12345ms or 181 ticks behind

**[16:47:46] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 17070ms or 341 ticks behind

**[16:49:35] [Server thread/WARN]:** Xisuma moved wrongly!

**[16:53:56] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 25843ms or 516 ticks behind

[17:00:00] [Server thread/INFO]: Saving the game (this may take a moment!)

[17:00:59] [Server thread/INFO]: Saved the game

**[17:02:59] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 20895ms or 417 ticks behind

**[17:04:12] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 22890ms or 457 ticks behind

**[17:04:34] [Server thread/WARN]:** Xisuma moved wrongly!

**[17:04:57] [Server thread/WARN]:** GoodTimeWithScar moved wrongly!

**[17:05:23] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 13879ms or 277 ticks behind

**[17:05:48] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 12047ms or 240 ticks behind

**[17:06:08] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 15833ms or 316 ticks behind

**[17:06:15] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 18217ms or 364 ticks behind

[17:06:37] [Server thread/INFO]: **GoodTimeWithScar experienced kinetic energy**

[17:06:37 [Server thread/INFO]: **Iskall85 was blown up by creeper**

[17:06:37] [Server thread/INFO]: **Xisuma fell out of the world** **  
**

**[17:06:38] [Server thread/W** Ạ̶̧̩͙͖̻̱̥̄̿̓̒͐ͨͭ͗ͦ͛̊ͬ̓ͭ̎̽͜ͅR̡͉̖͎͎̱͙͓̠̙͈̘͎͛͂̽ͩͫ̕ **N]:** Can't kee̟̯̬̼̩͉̯̙͖̘̞͔̯̠̊ͦͫ͌ͧ̍͜ͅͅp up! Is the server oo҉̨҉o̵͟a̛ǫä́͒ͭ͏̸̧͚̩̗̣͈̦̦̫̫̼̣̥̞̤̮̺̕͜ͅá̶͓͍̩̺̌͂̎ͭ̿ͪͣ̑͋ͨ͛͌̂̀̕͝ͅỏ̶̘̯͍̰̞̯͚͓͔̼̩͖̮̱͇̣̔̆̃ͭͤ̃̎̍̃̌̓͠ͅo̻̥̣̙̹͙͙̳̝͉͙̱̣̱͓͙͚̘͎͛̐͗͐̊̂ͩͨͤ̕o͌̎̊͌͝҉̢̡̱͔͚̖͟o̢̘̰̼̖͇̩̦̥̳̹̟̽ͧ͗̾ͦͪ̓ͣ̀̈̐̚ͅó̴̴̡̝̝̖̝̣͚̼̙̱̱̪͕͚̿̏̋̐ͅo̶̸̬̗̟̼̜͕̗͈͖̥̦̣͕̥͔͚͔̟͙͑̍͊ͮ͒̎͜͠o̸̼̻͖ͥͬ̅̃́͜͞ͅv̷̢̡̡̝͎͚̹͍̳̲͓̞̿̇ͤͪ̓̈͌͒̍̔̑̽̒̑e̴͙̼̩̼̩̱̭̒͛̈́̈ͯ̌̓̓ͧͬ̓͑̔̿͑̽̆̍͝͡r̷̛̬̖̺̩̞̫̗̲̟̦̜͚̮̙̻͇̰͆̉͐͐̐̅̆͌ͥ̓͋̋̾̈́͊̚̕ͅl͈̦͇̮͍̟̺̩̯̭̩̺̬̦̗̰̳ͧͬ̿ͣͥ͊ͤ̅ͯͯ̒̕ͅo̷̢̧̱̹̤̲̹̪̓ͪ̂̀͊ͨ͆̍̿̀ͧ͂̿̆͡a̢͛̆̿ͫ͋ͣ̄ͫ͠҉̴̜̹̥̤̥̭͙̦̩̳̘̜̯̼͈͢d̵̶̢̲̮̫̱̗̣̫̬̬̦͖̬͚̘ͭͮ̍̑̄͟͜ȩ̢d̴̷?̧͘͞ ̛R̴͘͘u͜͡͡nni̷̡͢n͜g̸̢͢ ̸͘7͏̴4̷̢9̷̡9ͤ͂̏̄̐̈̔ͪ̑͊̓́̑̊͏̘̣̞͎̯͉͉͓̹̖4̗̭̩̮͖̥̐ͩ̾́̓̇̂͘̕͞͝ͅm̨̰̥̬̰͓̬̻̖̥͍͓̪̲̪̾̐̈̽̂ͭ͌ͦ͊͐̅͒͛͂͛͜s̳̼̬̹̳̠̞͖̤̩ͥͤͨ͒ͨͦ͌̽ͮ̊̾̑̽͘͢s̟̪̯̘̺̠͈̻̦̟̈́͐ͯ̂ͭ̈͒̔̅͌̈͘s̢̪̩̮͈͔͇͚ͭ̎̒̉͂̄̌̓͠ss ̵̨or̸̵͠ ̵̛1̵4҉9 ҉t̢i̢͠c̷k͢҉s,̶̛͞,,͠,,̧͟,̴̕ ͟b҉e̡͏h͏̸h̶̫̭̪̤͕͙͖̗̜̼̻̜̥͙ͨ͑͐͆̽ͩ̋̀̈́͐̀͒̿͘͟͝͠i̲̝͇̺͓̻͖̫̻̩̩͖̘̟̝̲͚̞͆̽̀̈̓̊̓̽ͫ̈́̓͋ͩͯ̃̚͠͡n̷d̴͝ **  
**

**[17:06:45] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 7494ms or 149 ticks behind

**[17:06:47] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 2378ms or 78 ticks behind

[17:06:51] [Server thread/INFO]: <MumboJumbo> Oh!

**[17:06:59] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 28195ms or 563 ticks behind

**[17:07:15] [Server thread/WARN]:** X̶͘͘i̶̡͜s̴̕͟u̸̢͝m̢̡͏̨a̵͞͞ moved wrongly!

**[17:07:19] [Server thread/WARN]:** Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded? Running 13409ms or 268 ticks behind

[17:07:24] [Server thread/INFO]: <Grian> lol

After the deaths, he noticed that his, Scars and Iskalls usernames had become scrambled in the logs, even though it hadn't shown up like that in the chat at the time. But something had gone wrong with their accounts there, courtesy of an overloaded and struggling server. They had all died at the same time, and the server had gotten horribly confused as to what was happening. 

Xisuma let out a heavy sigh, resting his chin on his hands, just staring at the screen filled with red text. Red was never good. They didn't have many problems with server lag, but on some days when it got really crowded and everyone was doing tasking things like being at farms or running redstone systems or breeding animals, it could get a bit much. Seemed like them dying at the same time really was the last drop that made the server keel over. Xisuma silently told himself to look into it when he would be setting up the next world for the next Hermitcraft season, to prevent things like this from happening. 

But for now, he had to fix their accounts. 

He wasn't quite sure what he was doing yet, so he started with his own account as to not mess up anyone elses.

As he looked at his statistics, he noticed that the player data was all kinds of messed up. His respawn point was registered wrongly, numbers overlaying each other and changing as he looked at them. The server was struggling to keep track of his health, and he could only assume that it was somehow confused with Iskall and Scar and EX as well. It seemed like it didn't know where to draw the information for missing health from, and just used wrong data for all four of them. Thankfully the server was still able to track his coordinates in the world, or he would have _really_ run into some trouble in the past days.

Right now, there wasn't any lag on the server, but the damage had already been done. Several sets of data in his account had been corrupted. He would see if he could find some backup data and copy and paste the corrupted data by hand, making sure he wouldn't miss anything. 

He was interrupted by a mug that was practically shoved into his face, and looked up. EX had somehow managed to silently return, two cups of tea in his hands. One of them he was offering to X. 

"I... cheers, man.", Xisuma quietly thanked his brother as he took the mug. It had a chicken printed onto the side. Well, it was Grian's base, after all. He lifted his visor and took a sip. The tea was still piping hot, and unsweetened, just how he liked it. Confused about this gesture of kindness, he looked up to EX. 

"...Just work faster.", EX growled as a reply, impatient. He huddled himself back under the blanket, sitting on the opposite end of the bed. He was glaring daggers at X, but his attempts at appearing to be threatening were somewhat hindered by the blanket around him, the pink socks and the Sahara-brand mug he was occasionally sipping out of. 

X just chuckled to himself and returned to his task. 

He opened up the server log again, scrolling back to the time he unbanned Evil Xisuma. He wanted to confirm his theories about what had actually happened at that point. 

The days before the unban, he had lost his memory, and the data of his memories had been wrongly assigned to Iskall instead, leaving him with way more memories and sheer amount of data than he was used to. Of course he would be overwhelmed by suddenly having two lifetimes worth of gathered data, and, more on the human side, memories and feelings shoved onto him. Meanwhile, the server had desperately tried to load Xisuma's own memories onto his player account, but couldn't find them stored in the spot where they should be. That was probably the reason for all of his headaches as well. Scar didn't have any memory issues, luckily. But how did Evil X play into this, then? 

After a good 15 minutes of searching, Xisuma found another log that was interesting. It registered multiple attempts of Evil X to log back into the server, always failing because he was, well, banned. His attempts to log in had continued during the day they had all died. Somehow, with the server already struggling, one of his attempts to log in just as they had all died got thrown into the mix. Evil Xisumas account has been half-loaded the whole time for the past week, not quite logged in, but not really outside of the server either. However his banishment confused the struggling server, and X assumed it messed something up when EX tried to enter. His account had always had an connection to Xisuma himself, and Xisuma's account had been scrambled in with Scars and Iskalls. So it didn't surprise Xisuma to see that the servers desperate attempt to correctly load all players sometimes allowed EX to slip into Scar's body and the other way around. 

He sighed, rubbing his neck. 

After he had unbanned EX, things had gotten both better and worse. 

The corruption of their accounts had unraveled. The server had managed to properly load Evil X's account, now that he wasn't banned anymore, which separated him from Scar. During the shift of data the poor confused server also managed to properly allocate the memories of Xisuma again, so neither he nor Iskall had any memory issues after that. Most of their player data was back in place, although some of it was still horribly garbled and corrupted. 

The worst was, of course, the data that stored their health and injuries. As far as the server was concerned, the data for their injuries was now all stored in the same place, so whenever one of them had an injury 'added' to their player account, the same set of data was loaded for the other players as well. And it really sucked, Xisuma concluded. Their spawns were also mixed up, but he could manually fix that. 

For the rest of the data, he would have to sift trough the far hidden logs of the admin panels to find the correct numbers and letters to put in place for the right person. 

He got to it, starting with Iskalls account. 

Nothing of his work should hurt the other hermits (or himself), but he noticed Iskall occasionally shifting in his sleep as X was working. He deleted the messed up data, and then by hand looked trough the backup data until he found what he was looking for. After double-checking each set of numbers, only then he pasted it back into Iskall's live account. It was a painstaking procedure, and Xisuma felt like he was barely making any process. But he couldn't be hasty about this, either. He couldn't allow any mistakes to happen here. 

While he was focused in his work, the first other hermit to wake up was Doc. He was about to come over to X to ask him what he was doing, but after a quick shake of his helmet, a pointing to the admin logs, and a thumbs up, he understood and sat back down. As Ren woke up, the two of them got downstairs and started preparing delicious foods for the hermits, judging by the smell of pancakes. Ex was stomping around somewhere, not looking very happy. 

Xisuma was busy with Iskall's data alone for about two hours. His tea had long gone cold and forgotten. Somehow his hands hat gotten really itchy, but he ignored it. He kept an constant eye on the tag of Iskalls account that said 'asleep', and even changed it back to that as he was starting to wake up one time. It worked. Iskall could use the extra sleep, anyways. A few of the Hermits were up and about, but he didn't really pay any attention to them. They all seemed to notice his admin screens and the fact that there were still a lot of the others asleep, and most of them opted to join Doc and Ren downstairs. 

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, X was done with Iskall's account. It was all cleaned up, no messed up text in sight, and he even reset his spawn point to his current location: snoring loudly while hogging the blankets of him, Grian and Mumbo. X smiled at the sight. Grian was currently in the process of waking up, as well. 

Xisuma stretched his tense shoulders, finding a rather strange sight across his bed: Evil Xisuma and Jellie. They were sat with about two blocks of distance. Neither of them moved even an inch. Their eyes were locked in some sort of bizarre staring competition. Xisuma couldn't help but snort at the sight. EX wasn't wearing his gloves, and Xisuma could see his hands were more than a little scratched up. Seemed like he had gotten too close to Jellie before, so now he was just staring at her. Xisuma wondered if they were making any progress. The cat really seemed to dislike EX, but then again, he DID kind of possess her owner for a while. 

He took a short eye break from the admin screens, then flicked them back on to get working on Scar's account next. Now that he knew what he was doing, the whole process went a little faster. It was still a very tedious task, though. He was grateful for the pancakes Stress brought him at some point, and scarfed them down for breakfast. Luckily for him, Scar was asleep like a stone, exhausted from the night before. And so, Xisuma could work on fixing his data throughout the entire morning. 

When noon came around, he planned on working trough it, but the other hermits seemed to have other plans. He looked up as False approached him, her hands stemmed into her hips. 

"Time for lunch, X.", she said, in a way that made it clear that _it was time for lunch now_ , whether he liked it or not.. "How's it going?"

"I fixed Iskall's account, and I'm almost done with Scar's as well. Only need to-..."

"Great! You can do that after we've eaten something." She smiled at him. 

He shifted, eyes darting around the room, then sighed. "...Fine. I'll finish it later.", he finally admitted. He could need the break, he noticed as he got up and stretched his legs and arms, tingling from being in the same position for so long. Jellie and Evil X were nowhere to be seen, and Xisuma just hoped his brother would behave for now. The only hermits remaining on the floor were Scar, who was still asleep, Cub dozing off next to him, and Team ZIT, who were huddled in a corner, most likely scheming something. They were giggling and looking over to X every now and then. As Xisuma got up, he realized that Evil X leaning against a wall near them. He didn't seem to be participating in the conversation, but the other three were occasionally looking up to him, obviously unsure about his presence. He just turned his head away and pretended he wasn't listening. Xisuma could tell that he totally was, though. He looked like he wanted to be included. 

_Well, at least he's getting along? Kind of?_ Xisuma told himself, frowning. 

"X, how are you feeling, anyways?", False asked him. 

He finally got out of the bed. His knees were a little weak and his head started spinning as he was in a vertical position now, but he grabbed onto the headrest to steady himself. "I'm still a little lightheaded, i think, but nothing i can't handle."

False gave him a questioning look. "Here, let me look after your bandages before we go, okay?"

He nodded. False re-applied his bandages. His injuries were mostly healed, only a few bruises left on his chest and arms, and a shallow scratch across his shoulder where the axe of the pillager had hit him. It looked like it might leave a scar, but then again, it wouldn't be the first one. 

When Xisuma had a shirt and his elytra back on, the two hermits made their way down Grian's base. They had asked the others to come as well, but Tango had waved it off and said they would eat something later. 

The others had built a large table in the middle of Grians unused storage system, and several hermits were already eating. Steak and Golden Carrots were laid out in the middle of the table. Stress, Ren and Jevin were preparing more food and drinks. TFC was leaning against the window, looking up as Xisuma entered. Him and Doc arrived at the admin at the same time.

"I saw you working on the admin screens, are you feeling better?" Doc was the first to talk, tilting his head in concern. 

X nodded. "I'll be fine." He suppressed a short yawn, then gave Doc and TFC a smile. "I found a way to fix the accounts. It's a lot of work, but it should be all fixable, i reckon."

"Well that's good to hear.", TFC answered, sounding very honest. "You're _sure_ you're fine, Xisuma? With that evil brother of yours and whatnot."

"He's..." X hesitated and rubbed his neck. "It's okay. I'll talk to him, i don't think he's... well, dangerous this time."

Doc didn't seem to like that, as a scowl spread across his face. "You _do_ remember all the times he tried to literally destroy the server, right?"

Xisuma took a deep breath. "Yes, I know. But this time, he promised. I may not know him as much as i thought i would, or as much as i would want to, but he's not gonna break his promise to not destroy the server."

"Doesn't mean hes not gonna be a giant pain in the butt."

"Well if he _does_ do anything, you still have me. Beat him before, will do so again." Falses smug grin was plastered all over her face as she pushed the men over to the lunch table. Xisuma thought he saw a hint of guilt flash across her face, but it was gone as quickly as he noticed it.

"Oh yeah, what happened there? You gotta tell me everything.", Xisuma asked, a curious grin spreading over his face as well. This sounded like excellent blackmail material against EX. 

False gladly told him all about their encounter in the nether while the hermits were eating. Others joined to listen to her tale, and especially Cleo was greatly amused by the mental image of EX getting his butt kicked by False. 

After False had finished, Xisuma got into the details about his admin work with the accounts and what exactly had gone wrong. Doc, Cub and Joe were listening intently - Cub had come down for food since Scar was still asleep - but the others tuned out more and more as they had barely any idea what X was talking about. 

When they were all done, TFC wanted to leave for his bunker again, but the other hermits urged him to stay as everyone was invited to dinner as well. Xisuma smiled at the thought. They rarely got to meet between all of them nowadays, and after everything that had happened a large dinner seemed to be perfect. _Gotta make sure i'm all done with the admin work unil then._ , he thought to himself, already getting up from the table. However, before he could look for a quiet place to do his work, his view fell onto something else.

Iskall was at one end of the table, still scarfing down food like he was starving. Mumbo was watching in astonishment, while Grian was laughing and offering Iskall more food whenever he asked for it. Xisuma decided to go over to them before he left. 

"Hey, Iskall!", he greeted the swedish man. 

"Hmpf Hrng-hr-ma!", Iskall waved back, mouth full of baked potato. 

"Your account and data should be back in working order, how are you feeling?"

Iskall took a moment to swallow his food, then beamed at X. "A little tingly, but i'm way better!"

"That's good to hear." Xisuma was genuinely relieved. Messing with peoples live accounts was always nerve-wrecking. 

"Does that mean you don't have that weird... pain and, uh, injury thing going on anymore?", Mumbo asked, putting down his sandwich. 

"Yup, Should be gone if i did everything right. Iskall's account isn't connected to mine and Scars... and Evil X's anymore."

"Thank you so much Xisuma!" Iskall grinned over to both ears. "This is great! And i also dont have a headac- OW!" He was interrupted by Grian promptly punching him in the shoulder. "What was that for!"

"That's for going into the nether alone! What were you thinking!"

Mumbo laughed, then punched Iskalls other shoulder. "And that's for making me worry so much, mate!"

The three of them continued laughing and bickering, with Iskall trying his best to defend himself from hugs and punches from his friends. Xisuma laughed at them as well, getting up from the table once more. 

He excused himself from the other Hermits, announcing he wanted to keep working until their accounts were all fixed. He found a really nice quiet spot at the very top floor of Grians base, the Greenhouse. He sat there, leaning his back against a tree, with only a chicken and a few parrots to disturb him. They didn't, really. Occasionally he explained them what he was doing, and it helped him solve the problems he came across, even if he only got a few chirps and clucks as an answer. He quickly finished his work on Scar's account, checking over all of his stats again and again until he was sure it was back in working order. Scar seemed to still be asleep, despite the time being past noon already. However, X couldn't really say anything about that, as Scar hadn't gotten exactly the best amount of sleep for the past week. And passing out occasionally wasn't exactly resting either. 

After that, he started to work on Evil Xisumas and his own account simultaneously. They were a bit different to handle due to EX's account being basically a clone of his, and a lot of the stats and corrupted data were the same so he ended up being able to copy over a good amount of data between the two profiles. He worked on it well into the afternoon.

Occasionally he could hear the other hermits yelling or laughing, but they left him on his own since they knew how important his admin work was to him, especially right now. False came up to him at some point, to see how he was doing, and she decided to sit down next to him and hang out for a while since she needed a break from all the hermits' shenanigans. All of them in one place could only go for so long without breaking into chaos. (That time generally was around ten to fifteen minutes before someone invented a new game or tried to sell something to the others.)

X explained False what he was doing, and she nodded from time to time despite not really getting anything. She laid on her back to doze a little bit, and was still there when someone shot up into the room via elytra + rocket. 

Xisuma looked up as heavy boots came to an halt before him. Of course, it was Evil X. " **I'm done with this, we need to talk. Now.** " Seemed like he had put his edgy voice distorter back on. False jumped to her feet. 

"I'm almost done here, just give me a few more minutes." X answered calmly, stretching his back. He wanted to return to his admin screens, but an arm wrapped around his neck into some sort of loose headlock.

" **That wasn't a question.** ", EX replied, holding onto Xisuma's shoulder with his other hand. 

Then, both of them disappeared in a flurry of purple particles and with a small 'vwoop'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...since y'all got so upset over the ending of the last chapter :)


	32. X is absolutely fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heh, gotcha :D

Xisuma sputtered as he broke trough the water surface. They were outside of Grian's base in the ocean, having teleported right to the bottom of the sea. Apparently EX had thrown an enderpearl just before grabbing onto him.

"What was that for?" X asked him, treading water to not sink down.

" **We need to talk, i told you. Come on.** " EX started to swim to shore. His strokes were a little hasty. Neither of the void brothers particularly liked being in water, but Xisuma had gotten more and more used to it in the overworld, especially during the start of season six. He followed his brother, swimming towards the shore of the shopping district. 

"I know but, whats all this about? The enderpearls and everything?"

" **Well, i can't just ask you and leave, right? That's boring. You gotta make an entrance and an exit, Xisuma.** " He shook his head. " **You still have so much to learn.** "

Xisuma snorted. "Just as dramatic as always, eh? How many times have you practiced that enderpearl throw to get the timing right?"

EX was silent for a few seconds, only the sounds of the waves rushing around them. " **...A few times.** "

X laughed, and the two of them kept swimming until they reached the shoreline, near Sahara. It was a bit of a struggle to climb up the cliffs, part of which were terraformed by Scar, but they eventually managed to get up. 

" **Come on now, we don't have all day.** ", EX impatiently demanded. " **I don't wanna be interrupted by these bloody hermits every other minute.** "

"Yeah, yeah." Xisuma had taken out his communicator and shot the other hermits a quick message, then followed EX to the Sahara nether portal. 

He had a rough idea about where EX wanted to go, and it turned out he was right.

* * *

False started to panic as EX and X had disappeared. She had taken out her sword, looking around Grians greenhouse wildly. _What happened? Can EX teleport? He didn't do that when we fought, is this a void person thingie? Did he steal Xisuma's admin rights?_

She had already taken out her rockets and elytra, when she heard a series of buzzes from her communicator.

Xisuma: I'm fine.

Xisuma: just a little soggy

Xisuma: EX is just being theatrical again

Xisuma: we will be back in the evening! :-D

She let out a sigh of relief, then laughed. The brothers really were alike in some ways.

Shaking her head, she made her way down from the greenhouse, spiraling back towards the lowest floor of Grians base. Ren and Iskall were in a heated discussion involving logs, so she walked over to Bdubs and Keralis who were sitting at the end of the large table the hermits had set up, both looking a little gloomy. 

"Hey boys, what's going on? Why the long faces?" She asked gently, sliding onto a chair across from them. The both looked up to her. 

"False!", Keralis gave her a smile, but lacked his usual enthusiasm. 

Bdubs let out a long sigh and rested his head on the table, face first. Worry crinkled Falses brows. This was very unusal for either of them. She looked between the two of them, until Keralis finally spoke up.

"We're feeling bad because we couldn't help Shashwamy, at all..."

"Aww, guys." False gave Bdubs a good pat on his shoulder. "But you did help! You helped us get all the way back."

"But... you carried Xisuma! We didn't even properly help, at all! And all I did was cause trouble with Evil X. Even he did more to help than i did!" Bdubs sounded desperate, really. 

"Yeah, you and Evilshwamy would have managed even without me and Bubbles!"

"No, we wouldn't!", False interrupted them. "We couldn't have handled all of the mobs, at all! I was really happy you two were there. Besides, -" her face fell, and the knot she still had in her stomach ever since yesterday night made itself noticeable again. "-if anyone's done more harm than good, it was me."

Finally, Bdubs lifted his head from the table. 

"What do you mean, False? You carried Shishwamy all the way over here!" Keralis sounded confused.

Ashamed, False rubbed her neck, then started picking at her leather gloves. "I was... i was fighting against Evil X, you know?"

"What's so bad about that? That guy is _mighty_ suspicious if you ask me.", Bdubs grumbled, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Well... i met him in the nether, and thought he wanted to kill X, so i started to attack him." There was no talking around it, she had been the one to initiate the fight. "We fought for a while, and both of us took some hits. I think i stabbed him in the ribs?" She winced at the memory. "I managed to defeat him in the end, though."

"Falseee~, that's amazing!" Keralis was seriously impressed. "Evilshwamy has nothing on you!"

"Yeah, defeating him was a good thing!", Bdubs agreed excitedly, but then hesitated when he saw Falses face. "...Right?"

She let out a long sigh. "Well... technically, i suppose it was, but... you, uh, remember the whole thing the boys explained? About shared pain and injuries?"

"Yes? What does-... Oh." Keralis' eyes widened even more than usual, and he went quiet as he got Falses implications.

"Yeah." False agreed, her shoulders drooping down. "I really messed that up, didn't i?"

"Wait, are you saying Xisuma got hurt because you were fighting his brother?" To Falses surprise, Bdub's sounded more shocked than mad. 

"Yeah, that.", She confirmed. "Based on what Scar and Iskall were saying... All of them got hurt as well when i stabbed EX."

The following silence was pretty uncomfortable for all of them. 

"You know, False.", Bdubs started, voice unusually soft. "I know Xisuma. He won't hold it against you. And I'm pretty sure the other two won't, either."

"I- but- Bdubs, i _hurt_ him!"

"Well, you didn't stab Shashwamy, did you?"

"I- no, no i didn't."

"And you didn't know stabbing Evilshwamy would hurt Shishwamy, right?"

"No.", False grumbled, already seeing where this line of thought was going. They were trying to make her feel better, with _logic_. Ugh. 

"So, in conclusion...?"

She sighed. "I didn't directly hurt Xisuma."

Keralis just stared at her with his wide, round eyes. 

"...and i didn't know fighting EX would hurt him as well, so it wasn't... it wasn't my intention to hurt my friends."

"You see?"

"But i still _did_ hurt them in the end!"

"Well, that happens sometimes! We're hermits, we can take it.", Bdubs chimed in. "Remember all the times we fought?"

False sighed once more. Bdubs was right, the Hermits did fight occasionally. Mostly for fun, really, or when they really got into their builds and stories and current projects, or for minigames. It really wasn't that unusual, except that normally everyone consented to the fighting. 

But honestly, there was nothing much she could do about it right now. She just needed to make sure she apologized to X, Iskall, and Scar as soon as possible. Maybe help them with a future project. But really, as Bdubs had said before, the hermits would most likely - no, definitely not hold it against her. Scar wouldn't, he would probably just laugh it off. Iskall might start some prankage as a revenge, sure, but False could deal with that. Xisuma as well. He knew what happened, and he had laughed about it earlier when she told him how she kicked EX's butt. None of the hermits were the type to hold serious grudges. And they were friends, after all. 

"I suppose you're right, boys. Thank you.", False finally admitted, and both Bdub's and Keralis' faces lit up. 

"Good! Good. Thats real good." Bdub's nodded vehemently.

"But ya know, same goes for you. I really appreciated your help yesterday, so stop being so mopey. It doesn't suit you!" She reached over the table and ruffled both of their hair affectionately.

Keralis giggled. "Aww, Falseee!"

"Alright, but you better keep an eye on that Evil Xisuma guy! I dont trust him, stupid.", Bdubs added.

"I will, i will!" False laughed.

"Speaking of which, where is Evilshwamy anyways?"

"Oh, he kidnapped X so the two of them could have a talk in peace."

"He did WHAT NOW?!"

False spent the next ten minutes trying to physically stop Bdubs from running off and fighting EX.

* * *

Iskall sighed and got up from his chair, stretching his back. He had been talking to Ren, but Ren had excused himself to help some of the others prepare dinner. So now, Iskall was left on his own. He decided to go looking for Mumbo and Grian, his architech bros. 

Honestly, he was really happy things were returning to normal. After Xisuma had talked to him and told him his account should be back to normal, it had taken Iskall a few hours to shake the tingly feeling from his limbs that were the result of his accounts' data being changed. His headache was almost gone, and after eating like a madman at lunch his injuries were mostly healed up now. He still felt a little sore and tender, but that was nothing to worry about. Would probably be gone by the next day, along with the scratches and bruises that were left of his injuries.

He was also still a little confused about the events of the past few days, but with the help of the others and what they had told yesterday evening, he had a pretty good idea of what happened to him. Apparently the memories in his head had been from Xisuma. Clear images evaded him now that the memories were removed, but he had a feeling that there was a lot more stuff going on in Xisuma's past than any of the hermits knew. He wondered if any of the ones that had been there from the beginning, the start of Hermitcraft, knew more. Especially about all this void stuff. He had the lingering impression of a place much like the end, but... more advanced? Maybe he'd ask X himself about it one day. 

Iskall also now remembered going into the nether in his half-lucid state. What a stupid idea! Going back for his items? When his friends were right there, worrying about him? Definitely not one of his proudest moments. And then dying to a simple ghast?? Iskall knew he hadn't been in a very clear state of mind when he went to the nether, but that was plain embarassing. 

He chuckled and shook his head at his own actions as he made his way up trough Grian's base. _Well, that sure was a thing._ , he thought, referencing the past few days. He was just glad everything had been resolved now, although EX and X running off was slightly worrying. 

Iskall found his friends on the second floor of the base; Grians unused storage system. All of his possessions were in the bottom floor of the base in that mess of a chest monster Grian had been curating for the entire season. Mumbo was on the floor in front of an enderchest and what Iskall knew to be his redstone box. He was taking out Items, inspecting them, and re-arranging them in the chest. Iskall caught him chucking out two wheat seeds and a single wooden slab, and shook his head. Mumbo's inventory management was almost as bad as Grians shulker box problem. Grian himself was skulking around Mumbo, occasionally trying to sneak eggs into his redstone shulker box. He was finally successful as Mumbo looked up to greet Iskall.

"Oh! Hey, Iskall!"

"Hello!", Iskall replied cheerily, sitting down next to them.

"How are you feeling, dude?"

"Since you haven't been asking me that for at least 15 minutes: i can assure you, i'm still fine." Iskall laughed. Mumbo had asked him that question a minimum of 20 times that day already.

"Alright, just making sure." The mustached man raised his hands in defense. He was smiling, though. Grian dropped a piece of string over his shoulder into the redstone box. 

Iskall chuckled and watched Mumbo continue his task. For a moment, the Architechs sat in silence, Grian finally settling down next to them. 

"You know-", Mumbo was the first one to break the silence, storing a final repeater in his box and letting the shulker box lid spiral down. He sighed, resting his elbows on the box. "I was... I was really scared when i found you, in your base, you know?"

Iskall grimaced. "Was it bad? I... I don't remember all that well."

"It... it was pretty bad, yeah. You were all, hurt with explodey wounds, and your eye was broken, and you almost didn't recognize me..." Mumbo started fiddling with his sleeves. "It was scary, Iskall."

"Yeah, and then we got you home, and you didn't wake up properly... And you were super loopy and didn't make sense at all!", Grian agreed, voice just a little softer than usual. "And Doc repaired your eye and you passed out again... I was super worried for you, dude."

Iskalls heart broke a little as he saw his best friends like this. They seemed anxious, the bad memories lingering over them. An uneasy silence was falling over the group as each of them recalled said events. 

"I'm sorry.", Iskall finally said, tears welling up in his eyes. "...Especially about going to the nether, actually. I wasn't... i don't think i was quite thinking clearly at the time, and getting my stuff seemed like a logical thing to do! But, i didn't, i didn't think about you and that you were-..."

He was interrupted by Grian pulling him into a tight hug, hies head being shoved into the builders sweater. "Iskall, stop!"

Iskall sobbed, wrapping his arms around Grian. He felt his hair being pet, soothingly. 

"Look, yeah we worried, and yeah you were being stupid-" Iskall let out a weak chuckle - "-but that's over now, alright? You're back, and X got everything fixed."

"And, more importantly!" Mumbo's voice was coming closer and Iskall felt the weight of the hug increasing, feeling more arms wrapped around him. He felt a little like being coddled into large, friend-shaped blankets. "It wasn't your fault, right? You didn't know going into the nether would go this badly, mate." It was a soft 'mate', and despite occasionally making fun of how condescending it sounded sometimes when Mumbo said that, Iskall felt comforted by it right now. 

He laughed trough his tears.

The other two continued to talk to him and try to soothe him but, right there, sandwiched between his friends, Iskall knew he would be fine. They got his back, after all. 

* * *

Scar grimaced as something tickled over his face. He had been asleep, and he would have no problem staying that way, but something was ghosting over his cheeks. He tried his best to ignore it, until something wet hit his forehead and he flinched in surprise, opening his eyes in shock. He was looking up into gentle, soft green eyes, accompanied by a familiar pink nose and round face. 

"Jellie?" he whispered, confused. Her whiskers brushed over his face once more as she meowed, satisfied that he had woken up. 

Scar groaned as he struggled to get his bearings. His neck muscles were tense from lying still and sleeping for longer than usual, so he sat up and tried to roll his shoulders and stretch his neck. He looked around. Right, Grian's base. Jellie stepped over him, meowing in a very complain-y way. She finally settled down on his lap and he smiled. He wondered what had her so worked up. With a soft giggle, he pet her, instantly calming down. 

Cub was next to him.

"Cub!", Scar startled, since the man had previously been out of his field of view. 

Cub was looking at him, his eyes sparkling with relief. A very gentle smile was curled on his lips, shining even trough his beard. "Morning, Scar.", he finally greeted him, sounding happy. 

Scar broke into a wide grin at the sight of his friend. "Cub!!" He reached over to hug him, and felt Cub's arms wrap around him instantly. They stayed like that for a few moments, Scar finally feeling warm and comfortable. After a bit, he finally wrought himself out of the hug, his eyes slightly watery. He wiped over them with his sleeve. 

"How are you feeling, Scar?", Cub asked him, still holding his shoulder. He was inspecting him strictly, checking for wounds or anything suspicious. 

Scar did the same. He still had bandages wrapped around him, but he felt no pain. His bloody shirt was discarded, and he could spot his brown leather coat draped over the end of the bed, as well as his hat. It was slightly muddy. Scar couldn't remember the last time he had seen it, to be honest. He felt very disoriented and his muscles were a little sore... but overall, he was doing GREAT compared to the past week. _And Evil X is gone from me, as well_ , he thought to himself, recounting the events of the past night. 

He remembered walking trough the forest, talking to Xisuma, but after that events got a little blurry. He recounted passing out, and waking up again to the sight of X trying to unban EX. Then passing out again. Then waking up again, in that cave, pained and cold and hungry and worried about X who was bleeding so much. Scar shuddered at the thought. No wonder he felt exhausted. Wait, how long had he been asleep anyways? He remembered False and EX (of all people!) coming to their rescue, and the long way trough the nether tunnels, and Cub-...

Cub!

"I-... I'm fine.", Scar stammered, realizing he had left Cub without an answer for quite a while. Cub didn't seem to mind though, nodding patiently. "...Yeah, I'm.... fine, actually. Don't have a headache anymore, either. What's happened?" He looked around the room properly for the first time. Beds were literally _everywhere_. Clothes and shulker boxes and other personal belongings were spread over the floor of Grians base. Outside of the window, the sun was low on the sky, making its way towards the horizon. "Cub, it's not morning at all! Jeez, how long have i been asleep?"

Cub laughed. "Just today, don't worry. It's almost 5pm."

"What! I missed everything!"

"No no, its fine. You deserved the sleep, Scar." Cub turned soft again. "You didn't miss much, either. X spent the entire day fixing all the accounts, and the others were up to their usual shenanigans. Xisuma told me he is all done with your account, so everything should be back to normal. How do you feel?"

"I'm feeling good, actually!" Scar quickly checked his communicator to confirm that his name wasn't all weird and garbled anymore. "What about Evil Xisuma?" He remembered X's brother being there, helping him, even carrying him back!

"He and X left to have some privacy.", Cub explained, then tilted his head slightly. "I think there was some kidnapping involved, actually. But False said its fine."

"Huh." Scar really couldn't make sense of the guy. What did EX want from the hermits? One day he was all trying to destroy them, the other day he was defending him from Mobs. He had been helping him, although grumbling... yet before that, he had possessed Scar.

 _Ah_.

Scar's stomach dropped when he suddenly remembered why he had been avoiding Cub before. 

"Cub...", he began, hesitating. "About the... You know, _that_." He gesticulated with his arms helplessly, then sighed as he dropped them. "About me, killing you."

Cub's eyes shifted to the side and his shoulders tensed just a little bit, making him seem uncomfortable. It made Scar feel even more guilty. Cub sighed as well, then faced Scar again. "Scar, I-... look. I'm not gonna lie, that was one of the scariest things that happened to me in a while. But i also know it wasn't you. It was scary because it was your face, and i trust you, and you're my friend! No one likes being attacked and killed by someone who looks like their best friend! But, it wasn't you. It was EX. It might take me a while to, well, process what happened, but please know that i won't be blaming you, Scar. Never."

"But..."

"No 'but's. I mean it, Scar. You shouldn't have to worry about me."

"But i do. You're my friend, Cub, of course i worry about you."

"Well... So do I. How do _you_ feel, Scar? You've been possessed by our admins evil brother for the past week, for goodness sake!"

Tears welled up in Scar's eyes once more. He had a lump stuck in his throat, fiddling nervously with his fingers as he tried to come up with words. Jellie pressed her head into his hands, and he relaxed slighty, petting her. "It was scary for me as well, yeah.", he mumbled, giving Jellie a sad smile. "I kept passing out and didn't know what was happening, and when i woke up again, things were moved... I didn't know where i was... and, and then- ... you-..." Scar trailed off, remembering the day. How he had woken back up, only to see Cub pointing his crossbow at him. His face, twisted into an angry and scared scowl. How... _lost_ Cub had looked. 

The two of them spent a moment in silence, then their eyes met. Without any other words, Scar pulled Cub into another hug, ignoring the disgruntled mewing of Jellie as she was shoved out of his lap. The friends held each other, Cub pulling him closer. Tears from Scar were soaking into Cub's labcoat, and Cub himself was shaking a little, but both of them calmed down more and more. There were still things to be discussed, but for now, they didn't need any more words. 

Scar felt a huge weight being taken off his shoulders. He had been worried to face Cub again, scared even. But... Cub wasn't mad. He was shocked and a little disturbed, maybe, but honestly, so was Scar. There was no bad blood between them, that was what their hug assured Scar of. 


	33. Tears & Hugs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is music! For this fic!! created by the amazingly talented N0va!  
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/10kkzjO_gK-tfVD5c64Er-0n1fLVMj75N/view
> 
> i really recommend giving it a listen, maybe while reading this chapter, because it is a perfect fit! It caught the whole atmosphere of this chapter before the chapter itself had even been written,,  
> Thank you again, N0va!   
> And now enjoy. :)

Xisuma sighed as he sat down. The pale, yellow endstone felt smooth and familiar under his fingers, and his eyes relaxed at the soothing sight of the endless void above and around him. He leaned his back against one of the massive obsidian pillars of the end. His feet could dangle off the edge of the island in this position, and he enjoyed the chilly air of the place. As he had settled down, Xisuma tugged at his helmet, pulling it loose. He rifled trough his hair with both hands, the strands had become flat and pressed to his head from wearing the helmet for so long. His beard stubble had also grown considerably, since he hadn't done anything about it at all during the past week. 

He took a deep breath. End air filled his lungs, cold and light and just right to breathe freely. After the troubles and stress he had been trough, and the tense focusing on his admin work for the past day, he was relieved to be able to take a breather. 

Evil Xisuma was standing a few blocks away from him, just barely at the edge of the island, his toes positioned right on the last bit of endstone. He was staring out into the nothingness, quiet for a moment. He seemed to quickly grow bored of it, though, and turned to inspect the end island itself instead. Sadly, it didn't have any of the End plants the brothers were used to, or even just some chorus flowers, but at least the soft hills of endstone were familiar enough. It put his mind on ease as well, after being banned and suspended in the void for so long. 

It was a little bit of home.

Just like Xisuma. 

Their eyes met, and X shuffled to the side a little, invitingly patting the ground next to him. He had a melancholic smile on his face. It wasn't an expression EX had seen on him very often. He held his gaze for a few seconds longer, fists still clenched in lowly brooding anger, before he finally gave in and sat down, two blocks away from X, legs dangling over the edge as well. X looked away from him, seeming... sad. Anxious? His shoulders were slumped, unusual for the man's posture. Evil Xisuma shook his head, determined. He was here to give X a piece of his mind, and he wouldn't go all soft and sentimental on him just because he looked a little guilty. Damn, he _should_ feel guilty.

" **So** ,", Ex started, unsure how to start this conversation. " **Here we are, huh.** " 

Xisuma looked back up as his brothers distorted voice bristled trough the silent air. "Seems like it." He smiled, resting his hands on his helmet in his lap. "Xisuma-... I want to apologize. I did-..." He trailed off, not sure of his words. 

" **Well, I want to tell you how _I_ feel, first!**", EX grumbled, interrupting his brother's apology before he could feel sad on him after all and not get to the rant he had practiced so often during his banishment. " **Also, don't call me that. I am Evil Xisuma.** "

"...Right. Go on, then." Xisuma verbally stepped back and waved his hand, waiting for EX to talk.

" **Wait, really? You're just letting me chew you out?** "

"Of course. I regret not listening to you before, and frankly, last time you talked to me i was on the verge of passing out so i didn't gather much of what you said. But i want to know what you think." Xisuma put on his sincere tone. EX hated it. 

" **Well that's a first**.", he replied sarcastically, caught off-guard by Xisuma's readiness to listen to him. Still not sure what to start with, he instead opted to finally take off his helmet. With a heavy tug, it came loose. 

Xisuma watched his brother's features as he carefully put the helmet down to the side next to him. His hair had become longer over the banishment, longer than X had ever seen it. The hair fell in a loose ponytail over EX's back, coiling up on the endstone behind him. The white was growing out, and brown roots were showing trough, almost a hand's width long now. He didn't have a chance to dye it again since he had been unbanned. A knot tied itself in X's stomach as he realized for just how long he had abandoned his brother. EX's face was unchanged, however. He was pale and looked a little sickly, dark bags under his eyes as usual. The scar that ran across his cheek seemed more noticeable than ever. His brows were furrowed in that ever-persistent scowl he seemed to have ever since Xisuma left for Hermitcraft.

Ah, there it was. 

Him leaving for Hermitcraft. The original reason EX had become so bitter and obsessed with hunting down X and destroying his server. 

Xisuma gripped onto his helmet, his heart dropping. 

He prepared himself mentally for anything EX would say. He owed it to him, and he promised himself to listen to him, whatever it was he would tell him. 

Yes, he had been fed up with EX as he had banned him during season 6. Yes, Ex had been stealing from the hermits, and yes EX had attacked and killed him before. Xisuma had been backstabbed by EX several times, both figuratively and literally, so his concern about letting his clone onto the server full of his friends was not without reason. However, at the time he had not realized just quite what banning him actually meant. 

The shock of hearing EX beg and plead to unban him, especially his 'don't leave me there, again', was still settled deeply in Xisumas bones. Scar's descriptions of when he had been in EX's body, trapped in nothingness, lost in the void, had been dreadful enough. And Scar had only been there for minutes. EX had been there for months. 

Evil Xisuma was tense, crossing his arms in front of his body to stop himself from fidgeting. He couldn't find any of the words he had had in his mind for so long, and it wore him down.

Since EX still seemed indecisive, Xisuma decided to start the conversation instead. "Ex, look. I... I was wrong about something."

"Oh, were you now? That's a first, you admitting that."

"Come on, I'm trying to be serious here."

"Alright then." EX stared at him expectantly. 

"...When i banned you. I really thought you would go back to the Eternal End, you know?"

"I didn't, tho."

"...How was it?" Xisuma hoped this would prompt his brother to finally say what he so desperately wanted to get out.

Ex was silent for a few seconds, not in the mood for another snarky comment. "It was... it was pretty bad. Not at first, no. At first i just thought, this is the Void. I know the void, this is fine. But... It really wasn't. The void around the end is nice, and comforting." He waved his hands around said void as if to demonstrate. "But that void... I just felt so lost, Xisuma. It was just... endless, cold. It felt like the air was being sucked out of my lungs. I couldn't move, either. I could see your Hermitcraft server, but i couldn't reach. I couldn't watch what was going on, i was just... outside of everything. I don't know if it's because i had nowhere else to go but... i couldn't get out, couldn't go anywhere. I was just trapped. Gripped, by that void."

X watched EX as he shivered at the memory. His voice was so much softer than it used to be, less angry. Right now, he just sounded upset. Lost and small. Evil X had his arms wrapped around himself for protection, staring down at his feet. He was nothing like the man Xisuma knew before. Sure, amongst the hermits, EX was loud and pushy and tried to assert himself over the others. He was always up to something, always in everyone's business and maybe just a little annoying. And X had known him before that, when they were still in the Eternal End. Evil Xisuma had been endlessly curious, a little too casual about danger, a little smug.

But right now, now that no one else was around, he was just... hurt. 

X had the need to hug him, but he also felt like EX wouldn't accept that from him right now. 

"I spent my time thinking about myself, about you." EX looked back up to him, his purple eyes hurt and accusing. 

"You banned me, Xisuma. You pushed me away."

"I... I did."

"Why." Is was almost a demand, not a question, but Evil Xisumas voice was cracking. 

Xisuma's stomach dropped. His hands were cold as he looked at them, considering his answer. "...I didn't know it would be like that, EX. I... I was a little caught up with my own projects, i'll admit. And after you've backstabbed me so many times, and tried to destroy what i've worked for, and stole and killed.... I... I think i was just a little hurt, as well."

Xisuma was startled when EX's voice was a mere whisper. "That's no reason to do this to me." 

His heart broke at his brother's words. 

Xisuma opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again. He tried again, but no words came past the lump in his throat. Not that he really had any.

Evil Xisuma had drawn his legs towards his body, wrapping his arms around them. Tears had gathered in his eyes, just short from falling over his cheeks. He was staring ahead, into the distance of the void that surrounded the end city. He just looked... small. This wasn't an evil entity, bent on destroying what Xisuma loved. This was no shadowy overlord, no ruthless killer. 

This was his brother. 

And he was hurt. Because of him.

"...Look-" X started, then hesitated again. He reached out, hands just hovering over EX's shoulder. How could he make it up to him? How could he apologize? What could he offer his brother to let him know he was truly sorry about what he did?

"Just... just say it if you don't want me here." Evil X started again, interrupting himself with a sob. He was burying his head in his knees so he wouldn't have to look Xisuma in the face. "I can-... I can take it. Say that you hate me, whatever. I don't care." He wiped off his nose, and Xisuma could tell from his cracked voice that he very much _did_ care. "Just please, whatever you do, don't ban me again, X."

Evil Xisuma looked up at him again. His eyes were starting to turn red from crying, and tears left dark spots on the fabric of his knees. "Please. Let me return to the Eternal End, and I won't bother you again. I know you hate me, but... Xisuma, please don't ban me again."

"Ex... Ex, i don't _hate_ you." Xisuma said, as softly as he could. "I don't hate you."

"Are you-..Are you sure about that?" EX asked, voice choked and small.

Xisuma was tearing up as well at the sight. "Of course. You-...You're my brother, EX. Of course i don't hate you." 

"I'm not your brother, I'm just a failed version of you. Created by an accident." EX said, bitterly. "I'm just a mess up of you. You have all reasons to hate me." He had been brooding on this thought for way too long, even before his banishment. Never had he actually told X these thoughts, but the feeling of being created as a clone of someone by accident... It wasn't very nice, and some days EX would still get hung up on it. 

"Oh, EX...", Xisuma sighed, feeling hot tears drip down his face. "I really don't hate you. It doesn't matter how you came to be, only who you are. And you, you're... you're part of me. You're my brother, again. I-,,," he let out a helpless chuckle, briskly wiping away his tears with his arm. "I don't-...Jeez."

Ex was silent for a few moments, letting his words sink in. As he thought about it, he seemed to shrink into himself even more than before, if possible. "What a great brother i have been then, huh.", he muttered, voice a whisper full of bitterness and regret. "I-... I really don't deserve your kindness, after everything I've done." Rubbing his knuckles deep into his eyeballs, EX let out another sob. This really wasn't how he had pictured this conversation to go. 

Xisuma sniffed his nose, as well. "But you do, EX. It's... it's my fault it's come to this, really. Look, I... i was overwhelmed. I played around with the admin rights, and suddenly you were there. I didn't know how to handle it, and i tried to distance myself from you. Not because of you, but because of me, because i was scared and confused and not prepared. I thought that maybe if i just went back to the Overworld, it would be fine. But... It wasn't. I left you."

EX swallowed deeply, staring at his brother as he talked. 

"Then you came after me, and were angry, and you were right about it! It was your right to be angry. But i was blind, i only wanted to protect the hermits, protect myself. I shut you out, again and again, because... i didn't want to face you, EX. You were my problem, and i tried to push it away."

"..."

"But that's not how it works, i see that now. You're not a problem. You are a real human being- You have feelings, and emotions, and thoughts. I pretended i didn't see that. I knew, of course. I just ignored the thought, and pretended everything was fine."

Evil Xisuma just blinked at him, eyes dry and hurting from crying. "It wasn't, though. You-...", EX managed to finally get out. "I-... ugh..." He trailed off, another sob shaking his body.

"I hurt you." Xisuma simply said, his voice heavy with emotion. "I hurt you, EX. I left you behind, i shunned you out, and i banned you. And-... I was wrong doing that." X took a shaky breath, then looked firmly into his brothers eyes, another tear snaking its way over the scars on his face.

"I am truly, truly sorry for it, EX."

Evil Xisuma broke into tears again, feeling light. "That's-... ugh, that's _all i wanted to hear, X..._ "

Xisuma couldn't take it anymore, and reached over, wrapping his arms around his brother. He tensed at first, but then melted into the touch, sobbing against Xisuma's chest as X silently cried as well. Their positioning was a little awkward, sitting on the edge of the end island, but Xisuma felt EX's arms wrap around his waist and pulled him a little closer. 

They stayed in their hug for quite a while. EX, being wrapped in his brothers arms, finally calming down more and more, his sobs ebbing down after a while. X wiped over his own face once, then started rubbing circles into EX's back, soothingly. He stifled at the touch a little bit, but let it happen anyways. 

Xisuma was the one who finally pulled away, and EX let go of him as soon as he realized. The brothers sat back up straight, with EX rubbing over his face furiously to get rid of the tears and lingering feeling of exhaustion. 

They sat in silence for a few more minutes, more comfortable this time. 

"Well, what now?", Xisuma was the first one to talk again. 

"...I don't know, you tell me?" Ex murmured into his breath, running his hand trough his uncombed hair in an attempt to untangle it. 

"Come again?"

EX gave him a glance. "Well... i guess i'll leave, then. Can you get me back to the Etenal End, at least? I'm... I'm not sure how to get back there myself."

Xisuma was stunned, taking a while to fully process Evil X's words. 

"Wait, so... you think i'll make you go back?"

"...Yes?? I mean, you said you don't hate me, but, obviously, you wouldn't want me on your server, so unless you wanna... wanna ban me again..." EX's voice became small and trailed off, before he was pulled into another hug by Xisuma. 

"Oh EX, i can't make you go back there! You gotta stay here with us, right?" When EX didn't immediately answer, Xisuma let him go again, holding him by his shoulders instead. "I mean, only if you want to, of course, I don't wanna force you or anything or-..."

"Could i... could i really stay here?"

"Of course!!"

"What about the others?"

"Oh, the hermits? They'll understand once we explain it to them. They might be a bit suss of you right now, but ultimately i don't think there will be any hard feelings."

"...Really? After everything i've done?"

X gave him a reassuring smile. "Of course. I mean, you talked to some of them before, right? I think they would like you."

"Even False?"

"I'm sure she would be glad to have a new sparring partner."

"...Really?"

"Yeah, why not? Knowing you, you probably want a rematch after she kicked your butt, right?"

"I do-... she didn't-... i'm not saying i'm-...! Oh, bloody hell!" EX was flustered and settled for just lightly punching Xisuma's shoulder, who just chuckled. "What about Doc? He didn't like me."

"Oh don't give me that, Doc is just trying to act tough." X was amused. "He's like you in that, trying to seem rougher than he is. He'll get used to you."

"What do you mean, i'm trying to act tough! I AM tough!", EX complained, although he didn't mean it quite seriously. He snorted in amusement, though, and rubbed over his face again to get rid of the tenseness of crying. Then, he looked back up to X, face reddened and with a spark of new hope. "So, you don't think they would have any objections?"

"None."

EX stared down at his hands, a little more serious again. To be honest, staying on the Hermitcraftserver with all of these people sounded... nice. Fun, even. 

"So, whaddaya say? You wanna stay here?" X offered him, again.

Evil Xisuma turned towards him, giving him a small, genuine smile. It was the first of it's kind Xisuma could remember seeing on his brother's face, and it made him happy. 

"That would be great."

With a grin, Xisuma clapped his hands together. "Then it's decided! Don't go causing trouble though, you hear me?"

EX's smile turned a little more into a sly grin. "Can't promise that."

"Ah, but you won't be the only one out for mischief and chaos, i fear. Guess Grian gets some competition now."

"Grian? Which one is that?"

"Red sweater, blonde-ish hair. Always flies everywhere. He's the one who's base we were in earlier. He's always starting things on the server, games and chaos. He's not the only one, though."

"Oh?"

The next minutes were spent with Xisuma telling his brother of the many shenanigans the hermits had gotten up to only in the past few months. And oh, there were many. Evil Xisuma listened intently, and he felt a strange feeling arise in his chest. It was almost a yearning, an ache to be included and participate in these events, have people to laugh and joke with. He wanted to play pranks, to annoy each other, to have people to hand out with.

He couldn't let Xisuma see that though, or his reputation would be completely destroyed. He had to act tough, right? After all, he was still _Evil_ Xisuma.

"Why do you like those hermits so much? They're just a bunch of random people."

Xisuma chuckled. "Yeah, but thy're my friends. My family."

"Aren't I your family?"

"Yes, yes you are. You should really try talking to them when we get back, i think you'd get along great if you weren't stealing from them all the time."

"Heh, no bloody way. The only one i respect is Wormman, and he's not one of hose idiots, he's a superhero. He's so cool!"

Xisuma decided to say nothing.

"Also, what's the deal with that cat?"

"...Cat?"

"You know, the grey one who is always with Sc- the guy with the hat." Evil Xisuma almost forgot he pretended not to care about any of the hermits. "Gray fur, really clever, really mean to me."

"Ohh, I see. Why do you ask?"

EX fidgeted a little, and Xisuma thought he saw him blush. "... No reason. I just wanna know why she's so mean to me."

"...You like cats."

"Absolutely not.", EX lied.

"You wanna pet her, don't'cha."

"...No. But if i _WOULD_ , what would i have to do?"

Xisuma grinned. "Well, for starters, i think she doesn't like you because you've been possessing Scar, I reckon."

"What! What does that have to do with anything!"

"Well, people generally don't like it when you possess their friends. And cats don't either, i suppose. She's a pretty clever one, she always knew whether it was you or Scar."

"Yeah i noticed.", EX grumbled, rubbing over the bite marks that were still littering his hands. Thinking of it, the cat had also bit him when he was still in Scar's body. 

"She and Scar are practically inseparable, so of course you and her are off to a bad start."

"But, i'm here now! What's done is done, right?"

"Ex, when will you learn that your actions have consequences?"

"I don't like that.", he pouted, as if he hadn't just cried into his brothers arms about it just minutes before.

X snorted. "Yeah, i know. Anyways, you should be patient with her. She's a cat, she had no logical understanding of what happened in the past week in detail. You can't just tell her 'Hey, I'm good now' and expect her to understand. But she's also pretty clever. Cats can sense your intentions, i think. Let her come to you. Also, her name is Jellie, maybe she'll respond to that?"

"Jellie, huh.", EX muttered. 

"It's about that mutual respect, you know?"

"Ugh, spare me with that crap again." Ex groaned, but mostly because he knew his brother was right. Suddenly, he remembered something else important he needed to ask his borther about. "Ah right, if you don't mind me asking, what happened?"

Xisuma was taken aback by the sudden change of topic. "Huh? What do ya mean?" 

"Your memory and everything?", EX specified. When they had been talking in the forest behind IDEA, X didn't really go into detail with that.

Xisuma sighed. "Ah, that..." He scratched his neck, unsure on where to even start. "Something went wrong with a few accounts because the server was overwhelmed, basically. And you were trying to get in, as well, and were roped into it."

"That... explains exactly nothing."

"Well, you see, it started almost a week ago. I woke up in the End, somewhere, lost, without any memory of who i was or how i got there..."

Xisuma proceeded to tell EX the whole story of the events of the past few days, from start to finish. And EX listened, occasionally making a sarcastic comment or chuckling to himself. He now understood why Xisuma had been so confused when he had met him, and how he got into the whole situation of being injured and everything. 

"...And that's when you and False found us. Not gonna lie, my memory is a little blurry at that point, but i do remember you talking to me. Didn't really catch much of it, tho.", Xisuma ended his story, amused. 

"I'm still gonna make fun of you for getting wrecked by a freaking pillager, though." EX grinned, already looking forward to rubbing it into Xisumas face at every chance. 

"Oh? Well at least i didn't lose face to a cat." Xisuma was smiling back at him just as calmly, his tone teasing. 

"Oh, really? Wehat about that one time an Endermite startled you so badly you fell off a cliff?"

The two of them kept bickering back and fort, referencing their adventures in the Eternal End as well as on the Hermitcraftservers. Their hearts were light with happiness, now that all of the heavy stuff was talked about and out of the way. Xisuma could see the smile in his brother's face for the first time in so long, and he felt at peace. Evil Xisuma was more than happy about finally bantering with X again. He had really missed their conversations, back when they still had been on good terms and were always lightly teasing each other. 

After a while, Xisuma remembered he still needed to finish fixing his and EX's accounts, and got right to it. Evil Xisuma was looking over his shoulder, and X gladly explained what he was doing and what had happened while he was typing in commands and numbers. EX didn't get most of it. He grew bored of it soon enough and started telling stories about his adventures in the Eternal End instead after Xisuma had left him. 

X was listening to EX talk contently while he was working in the admin panels. The two of them still sat on the edge of the end island, legs dangling down, and enjoyed the chilly air of the end. 

"And then there was this huge Enderpede! It was all writhing around, and i was behind the- AUGH! WHAT THE?!"

EX had jumped as someone had snuck up behind him, tackling him in a hug attack.

"Surprise! It's me, Grian!" Grian laughed as he quickly got out of the range of EX's sword. 

"Ex, no swords! Stop it!" Xisuma tried to stop his brother, laughing as well.

"He attacked me!", EX cried out accusingly, hands including his sword waving around wildly.

This caused Grian to laugh even more. "It's called a hug! You should try it sometimes!"

"Oh I'll have you know i've had plenty of hugs!"

"Oh yeah! How many?!"

EX did a quick finger count. "...At least three, if you include a headlock during a fight."

"Anyways, it's time for dinner and we were wondering where you two ended up.", Grian continued as if nothing happened, curiously looking at EX and X's un-helmeted faces. "You can breathe fine in here?"

"Yep.", X agreed.

"Why, you can't?", EX asked, sensing an opportunity to make fun of someone.

"I mean, it's enough, but it's not very pleasant. Feels like being up high in the clouds, but more suffocating?", Grian tried to describe the feeling the thin end air was giving him. "...Anyways that's not what i'm here for! I'm supposed to get you guys back home!"

"Oh, we're coming!" Xisuma chimed in happily, finally getting up from the floor. "Evil X cannot wait to be friends with all of you.", he added, a hint of mischief in his voice.

"I'm NOT- No friends!", Evil Xisuma sputtered, quickly putting back on his helmet so Grian and X couldn't see him blushing. " **I don't want to be friends with anyone! Stupid hermits.** "

"Sure, buddy.", Xisuma smiled as he patted him heavily on the shoulder, like you would do when reassuring a little kid. EX just growled at him, while Grian snickered.

The three made their way up to the end portal, while Grian told them what's for dinner and what exactly Team ZIT managed to do to his base in the one and a half hours the void brothers had been gone. 

"Alright, in we go." Xisuma could see a glint in Grian's dark eyes, and knew exactly what was about to happen when he felt his hand on his back.

"Wait- Gee-ar-ian, i haven't reset out spaw-"

He didn't managed to finish his sentence as Grian was downright cackling as he pushed Xisuma and EX both into the black void of the end portal.


	34. Epilogue: Everyone finally knows what had been going on, especially X

X and EX arrived back in the overworld in a heap of limbs at spawn, entangled and a little short on breath. X quickly put on his helmet again, as to not repeat certain events, then laughed as he saw EX sulking, still sitting on the wet brick floor with crossed arms. Grian wasn't there, as his spawn point was most likely still set at his base. X shook his head good-heartedly, going back into the admin controls and setting his and EX's spawn points to the beds they last slept in, as well. He had had to take that data out earlier when he had been working on fixing things, as the numbers had been corrupted as well.

But after giving their accounts another lookover, it seemed like everything was finally back in order. 

After Xisuma and Evil X had managed to make their way back from spawn to Grians base, all of the hermits had sat down at the huge table they had put up for dinner. Xisuma couldn't help but notice that this room was now missing a substancial part of the wall and also had considerably more sheep than before (which had been zero), but he didn't bother asking as he was sure he would hear about it over dinnner anyways. 

However, first he had to make an announcement.

Xisuma had been urged to sit at the head of the table, something he wasn't very fond of, but chose not to argue with Cleo about for now. To his right, there was EX. He hadn't sat down yet, and X guessed he was nervous about being in the room full of hermits. He got some very curious glances, and a few raised eyebrows, but so far, no one had said anything yet. To Xisumas left were Scar and Cub, accompanied by Jellie. Xisuma wondered if the cat and Evil X would be having a staring battle across the table during dinner. The other hermits were spread across the table, as well. Iskall sat next to EX, in company of Ren and Doc. Mumbo and Grian were discussing the food with Stress, while Impulse just laughed at the scene. He sat with Tango, and Cleo had joined them as well, trying to convince Tango about using more armor stands. Jevin and Joe were having a deep conversation about dogs, which False listened to them with half an ear while she was keeping tabs on EX. TFC was being bombarded with questions from Zedaph, the short answers to them being written down furiously. X assumed the blonde hermit was scheming, as usual. At the end of the table, Keralis and Bdubs were busy with loudly complimenting every item of food they came across.

He smiled at the sight, giving his brother a reassuring nod to step up to the table as he himself stood up. Heads turned at the two, and the conversations died down with little to no delay as they saw Xisuma wanted to say something. To be frank, he was amazed by that. The hermits had never been known for being easy to control. 

Suddenly, he was nervous, with all eyes on him. 

He cleared his throat, then gave everyone a smile trough his helmet. 

"Alright peeps! I'm glad you are all here today, and i hope you spent a nice day today after the troubles of the past week."

"Just get to the point, X!", Cleo reminded him, a fond smile on her face. 

"...Right. Well as you all know, i lost my memory, and there were some mix-ups with the accounts of me and Iskall and Scar. I'm happy to say i got it all sorted out now! Nothing more to worry about."

There was a bit of clapping and cheering, but it died down fairly quickly as everyone was dying to hear what X would have to say next. He noticed glances flickering over to EX all the time.

"As you all know-" He wrapped an arm around EX's shoulder, dragging him a bit closer to the table. "This is Evil Xisuma. Say Hi, EX."

" **Hello everyone.** " EX grumbled, unable to free himself of Xisuma's grip. He was glaring daggers at everyone who waved at him cheerily, which caused the hermits to do it even more so.

"I unbanned EX two days ago. He will be living on the Hermitcraftserver, starting now! Yay!"

The crowd went wild. Zedaph started cheering loudly, while most of the other hermits were caught somewhere between a well-meaning shrug and concern. However, there were some righteous worries amon them as well. 

"Wait, isn't he still dangerous?"

"Doesn't he wanna kill you anymore? Is that not a thing??"

"Will you play our minigames again, EX?"

"What did he do to Scar?"

"Meow!"

"He killed Cub!"

"Calm down, Calm down, please!" X tried to get some silence into the room, waving his hands. "We'll explain it, okay?" The hermits started to calm down somewhat. 

X sighed. He should have figured that not everyone would be happy to have EX back on the server. Right now, Scar and Cub seemed most suspicious - with good right, since they were the ones most affected by EX in the past week. Doc, Jevin, Iskall and Ren were looking wary, and while False was keeping an eye on EX still, she didn't seem to have any objections. Zedaph and Impulse seemed excited about the thought of EX joining them, with Tango joining in. The other's expressions were somewhere between an 'i dont mind' acceptance and a hesitant 'i don't really trust EX but i trust our admins decisions'.

To Xisuma's surprise, Evil X stepped forwards in his own account before he had the chance to start an explanation. 

" **Look, i'm flattered that you all think i'm dangerous. Really 'preciate it.** ", he started, and X shook his head in exasperated amusement. " **'cause, i am! But i made this stupid promise to Xisuma-** " he pointed his thumb to X, who was standing behind him. " **-that i won't kill any of you. Or him, unfortunately.** " He left it at that.

Doc had a scowl on his face. "That doesn't sound super trustworthy."

"Bold of you to assume you could kill me if you wanted to.", False teased him with a smug grin. 

EX was about to answer, but was held back by an arm across his chest from Xisuma, who just shook his head silently. Not the time. X was looking to Scar, who seemed the most upset. 

Finally, Scar spoke up, looking into Xisuma's eyes directly. "X, do you trust him?"

Xisuma gave his brother a long, considering look, then locked eyes with Scar again. "I do. I trust his word. And on top of that, i will make sure he doesn't harm anyone."

Scar was silent for a while, then shared a glance with Cub next to him. Eventually, he gave a firm nod to Xisuma. "Alright, then. I trust you, X, so i'll trust him as well." He looked over and gave EX a small smile, albeit shy. "Welcome, Evil X."

Evil Xisuma stared back at him. It was hard to tell what he was thinking behind his visor, but his posture finally relaxed and he simply gave Scar a small nod back. Xisuma guessed he probably couldn't find his words, not even for a snarky comment.

He looked over the hermits again. Doc and the others seemed to have relaxed somewhat, although it would probably take some time for them to fully trust EX. But that was fine. Xisuma himself still wasn't sure if it was a good idea to let Evil X stay, but he was fully convinced that his brother was genuinely serious this time. 

X nodded, satisfied. This would do for now.

"Well then, let's eat!"

EX sat down next to his brother, and the hermits began to eat. The food was great. Between Steak and cooked fish, golden carrots and hot potatoes, and cake for dessert, the hermits had pretty much gotten anything their world had to offer.

EX spent most of the dinner either glaring at Jellie across the table - as X predicted - or tried to antagonize False, which ended up in them agreeing to meet for a sparring session the next day. Xisuma spent most of the dinner reassuring various hermits that, yes, he was okay. Yes, he did get all of his memories back. No, he would not be respawning on top of Iskall again. Yes, he liked the food they cooked. 

Iskall asked him about his past, actually. Xisuma assumed he had seen some glimpses of his memory of the eternal end while their accounts and memories had been mixed up, and he hesitantly answered some of the swede's question. It wasn't like his past was something he would like to keep a secret, but he just had never told anyone about it before. It made him a little uncomfortable. He left out some parts, like his creation or how Evil X came to be, but gladly told the other hermits about the Eternal End, and all of its creatures and plants. To the newer hermits, he also told the story of how Hermitcraft was founded, and how he had been there pretty much from the beginning. He liked talking about Hermitcraft. It was his home. These people were his family. The others shared some of their own stories, and the evening quickly progressed into night. 

They kept chatting away, making jokes and laughing. Xisuma truly felt at peace. He looked over to EX, who was still a little reluctant, but Tango, Zedaph and Impulse eagerly involved him into their shenanigans. Currently they were telling him how they managed to get so many sheep into Grians base, and X was once more amazed by their antics. EX seemed as well. Their conversation quickly turned into scheming and Xisuma wondered if he should intervene... But then again, he was just happy to see his brother socializing with the hermits instead of attacking them.

Night came, and the night continued. It was getting later and later, and only after midnight the hermits realized just HOW late it had gotten. Some hermits managed to tear themselves away from the party, returning to their bases, seeing as everything was in order again. A few hermits wanted to stay the night at Grian's base again, making sure everything would still be fine in the morning, or simply because they were full of food and didn't want to leave the comfort of the base and company. Cub and Scar decided to return to ConCorp together, but not before Xisuma gave Scar a warm-hearted hug and assured him he would be fine. Mumbo and Iskall stayed over for the night, just as Ren and Stress and Doc. Team ZIT had inexplicably disappeared during the party, but Xisuma could hear their contagious laughter from way up in Grian's greenhouse. All other hermits left after saying good night. 

Xisuma decided he and EX would stay over one more night, as well. 

Everyone had settled in the large room full of beds, and Xisuma could hear the architechs whispering and giggling, while Doc was already snoring loudly. EX and Xisuma himself had taken up beds near the wall, a few blocks away from a sleeping Ren. 

Evil X had cuddled himself into his blanket already, sitting on his bed cross-legged and beckoning Jellie to come closer, who was wandering around the room. Scar would probably come back for her in the morning, but Jellie was her own cat so it wasn't unusual to see her around the server on her own sometimes. 

Xisuma sighed contently as he pulled off his boots and crawled into bed himself. He looked over to his brother. He had changed in the past years, but his curiosity about new things and creatures had stayed the same. He was still his brother.

"Thank you.", Xisuma finally brought out after watching EX for a while.

The other man looked up, the red lights behind his visor glowing in the dark room. " **What?** "

"...For staying. For being here. For giving me another chance."

". **..Same goes to you.** ", EX hesitantly replied, eyes back on Jellie who was carefully creeping closer, but mind elsewhere. " **Thanks for letting em come back.** "

"...Of course. I'm sorry it took so long."

EX shrugged, then sighed. " **Let's just call it quits, okay? I won't destroy anything anymore and you don't have to ban me again.** "

Xisuma chuckled slightly, heart warm. "Alright, sounds good to me. Oh hey, look at that!"

Jellie had reached Evil Xisuma, and had jumped up onto his bed, sniffing his hand and eyeing him curiously. He held his breath, staying completely still with his hand reached out to her, palm up. Finally, after a tense few moments, Jellie rubbed her head against his hand once. He carefully curled his fingers, softly petting her behind her ears, ever so carefully in case she would bite him again. She let it happen. " **X, X, look at me! I'm petting her! She likes me!** " He sounded gentle as he whispered. 

Jellie mewed at him, as if to say 'don't get too excited', and pulled away to walk over to the end of his bed. Evil X ever so carefully put his pillow over for her, patting it softly. She took the invitation and curled up on the pillow. EX seemed downright gleeful, and tried his best to move as little as possible as to not disturb the cat on his bed. 

"Seems like you two are starting to make peace, huh." Xisuma commented softly, laying his head down on his own pillow.

" **She likes me! Now I'll be unstoppable!** ", EX agreed, while burrowing further into his blankets to find a comfortable position. He was interrupted by a yawn.

Xisuma smiled at the sight. 

"Good Night, EX.", he finally said, closing his eyes.

" **'Night, Xisuma.** ", came the sleepy reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll save the long sappy rant for another time and place, but i just want to thank every single person who has read this story. I seriously couldn't have done it without your support, you are all amazing! <3
> 
> This was the epilogue, the end of Lost in the Voids Embrace!  
> HOWEVER.... there will be one more bonus chapter soon :)
> 
> Until then, thank you for reading, and i hope you are all having a great day! <3


	35. Bonus: Lost in the Worms Embrace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh, worm?

It had been about three weeks since Evil Xisuma started living with the hermits, and everyone had slowly started to adjust. At first, he had been staying at Xisuma's base, but both of them had started to get on each other's nerves after just about a week, so EX had set out and started to build his own little base to live in. 

He had been alerted to the existence of netherbricks, and, deeming it an 'appropriately evil' material, his house was a monstrosity of mostly the same material. It was set on one of the small Islands east from Scar's pirate area, not too far away from Xisumas base. He had thrown in a few spikes made of iron blocks and bars he had gotten from Tango as a gift, as well. It wasn't something any of the hermits would consider 'pretty' or even say it 'makes sense as a structure', but EX was pretty proud of it. After all, it was the first time he had really made an effort to build anything - in the past, he had only destroyed.

Around EX's base one could find sheep wandering around. EX had 'rescued' them from Xisuma's large sheep farm in the end, to mess with him of course. He had freed around 20 sheep, but unfortunately only 3 of them had made the journey back into the overworld. EX had then given up on trying to mess with Xisuma's farm, and the sheep were happily roaming the small island now. 

Other than busying himself with building on the base, he had mostly been up to shenanigans, predictably. 

His sparring rematch against False had soon turned into regular training matches every other day. Both of them enjoyed the workout, and False was teaching EX a lot of proper PvP tricks. Xisuma wondered if he should be worried about that, but, then again, EX had yet to beat False in a match even once. 

EX was often hanging out with Xisuma, watching him build farms or work on community roads. Most of the time, they were peaceful enough towards each other, with only the occasional snarky remark or teasing comment - but that went for both sides, and they enjoyed their now more relaxed relationship. 

One day, EX had been invited to play the RGB game at the minigame district with team ZIT, and the four of them had been nearly inseparable ever since. To the point where X was genuinely worried about the safety of the server, considering Tango was still tweaking his boombox game, and EX and TNT didn't exactly have the best history. But he could rely on contacting Impulse or Tango or Zed whenever he wanted to find EX and he wasn't in his base. 

EX was also getting along with Cleo, and, by default, Joe. He had tried to rile up the Zombie lady once, but she had of course not taken well to his shenanigans and instead hit him back with her own brand of sarcasm. Since then, he had visited her once or twice. From the outside, it seemed like they were just arguing and trying to one-up each other, but Evil Xisuma seemed to enjoy it since he kept going back.

Xisuma did his own share of pranks on his brother, though. They were very similar in that matter. One day he had put up flowers all around the outside of EX's base, which had caused his evil brother to lock himself into his room for half a day until finally False had taken pity on him and removed the flowers. The next day, Xisuma found the floor of his base covered in turtle eggs. The turtles that had hatched were still roaming his base in masses, but the mental image of EX lovingly breeding turtles and carefully collecting their eggs just to get back at him made up for it. 

EX was also often accompanied by Jellie, curiously. After they had made up with each other after the events three weeks ago, the cat seemed to have taken a liking to him, and often wandered to his area once Scar was asleep. X would often find his brother talking to her, explaining what he was building or re-telling his latest encounter with one of the hermits. 

Just as he was now, as Xisuma arrived at his little island per elytra. EX had called him over via chat, wanting to ask him something.

" **And see, Jellie, we were friends! He said i could help him, and said i was his sidekick! it was pretty much the best day of my life.** "

"Meow!"

" **And after that, both of us were invited to- Oh, hey Xisuma.** " EX had finally noticed him approaching and interrupted his rant to Jellie. She looked like she was satisfied with the head scratches she was getting though, laying in EX's lap. He had cat hair all over his armor.

"Morning, EX!", Xisuma greeted him, cheerfully. He looked over Evil X's base, noting the new addition of campfires on the roof. His guess was that i wouldn't be long before EX accidentally flew into them and got angry about it.

Xisuma walked over and plopped down on the floor next to his brother, who was obviously unable to get up without disturbing Jellie. "How are you doing?"

" **Terrific, why are you asking?** " X couldn't tell if he was being honest or sarcastic, but chuckled.

"Oh i don't know, this might be a wild idea but... maybe i care about you? Might be something else, though, i dunno."

EX snorted and lightly kicked Xisuma in his shin, the only part he could reach without getting up. Jellie meowed, displeased.

"Anyways, what can i do for you, my friend?"

Instead of telling him off for calling him a 'friend', EX seemed to get embarassed. " **Um... So you remember the last time?** "

"Hm?"

" **The last world. Season 5 or what'cha call it.** "

"Oh, yeah, why?" Xisuma had no idea what he was trying to get at. 

" **I mean, not sure if you got all your memories back-** " It was clear that EX was trying very hard to sound casual. " **-but i met someone, well, him, i mean, you know... It was really great and i had a lot of fun!! And after that, when i was back with you, we went shopping, and, you know!** " Ex started fidgeting, but sounded more and more exciting the less sense he was making. Xisuma had only seen him this excited about something once. 

"Oh, Wormman?"

" **Yes!!!** " EX clapped his hands together. " **Is he, um... is he still around? Could you ask him if, you know, maybe he wants to meet up with me again or something...** "

Xisuma snorted, amused. There he was, getting all worried and serious about what his brother was gonna ask him, and it was _Wormman_ of all things.

X remembered Evil Xisumas fascination with the pink-dressed superhero. He had been his number one (and, to be frank, probably only) fan for the longest time, and Xisuma vividly remembered buying him a merch shirt around christmas. He had been like a little puppy in the pet store. 

And, puppy eyes was the look Evil X was giving him right now. 

Xisuma sighed. 

"...Fine, i'll see if i can ask-... if i can find Wormman. But, keep in mind-" He started, trying to calm down EX who had jumped up and was now clutching Jellie to his chest, getting more excited and starting to bounce. "-i haven't seen him around in a while, he might not be... uhm. He might not be on the server, the last time i've seen him was in the last world."

" **Ohhh thank you Xisuma! Yay! I can't believe i'm gonna see Wormman again!!** " EX was, of course, completely ignoring his last sentence. Jellie gave him a disgruntled meow as she was flung around in his arms.

* * *

Xisuma >>> Zedaph: Zed, can i talk to you for a minute?

Zedaph >>> Xisuma: Oh dear, is it because of the guardians?

Xisuma >>> Zedaph: No, its about sth else

Xisuma >>> Zedaph: wait, what?

Zedaph >>> Xisuma: ...dont worry about it.

Zedaph >>> Xisuma: we're near the thunder shrine in minigame district, taking a break right now.

Xisuma >>> Zedaph: I'll be over in a minute

Xisuma was approaching the minigame district per elytra, cycling in on a place near the large trident tower Impulse had built. He touched onto the grass, lightly jogging up to his fellow hermits. Zedaph, Impulse, and Tango had been moving guardians, for god knows what reason. They seemed exhausted, currently resting in the soft grass. Xisuma could hear said guardians squeaking somewhere nearby, but he decided not to bother looking for them. Best not to ask. Tango was lying on his back, fast asleep, while Impulse was currently stacking the contents of his inventory on top of him, seeing how many items he could place before Tango woke up. Zedaph jumped up when he noticed X and bounded towards him, waving happily. He seemed a little worn out, but gleeful as usual. 

"Hello, Zedaph!"

"Good Morning, Mr. Xisuma! How may i be of service on this fine day?" Zedaph did a little exaggerated bow towards him. 

"Good sir, i kind of need to ask you a favor.", X played along.

A smirk spread across Zed's face. "Oh, an opportunity to have the admin of the server be in debt to me? _Pray tell._ "

Xisuma squinted at him for a second, suspicious, but he knew Zedaphs general good-naturedness, so he decided that owing Zedaph wasn't the worst thing that could happen to him on this server. "It's about Wormman, actually. Evil X... he really wants to see him again. Like, _really_ really. So, seeing as you're Wormman... _s friend._ " He made a heavy break, eyeing Zedaph, who grinned innocently. "...Could you possibly _ask_ him to come over?"

Ah, you see..." Zedaph laughed and rubbed his neck in embarassment. "The thing is, I don't-... i mean, _Wormman_ doesn't have his superhero suit anymore. Got lost somewhere between season 5 and 6, i reckon."

"Hmm..."

"I mean, i'm sure Wormman would love to hang out with EX again! I heard they were great friends, and i kinda miss the good old days." Zedaph smiled softly at the memory, then caught himself. "...And i'm sure Wormman misses them too."

Xisuma snickered, then sighed once more.

"So, nothing you can do?"

"Mh, unless i get my hands on a new Wormman suit... to, _uh_ , give it to him of course, you know?"

"Of course."

"Unless that, there's nothing i can do, unfortunately."

"I see. Mmh, gotta break that to him then..." Xisuma trailed off, lost in thought. 

Both of them startled at a sudden yell of "AH! YOU JERK!", the loud clanking and clattering of items, splashing of water and incomprehensible laughter from Tango and Impulse as a soggy Tango started chasing Impulse trough the district. 

Seemed like trying to balance a bucket of water on his forehead had pushed it a little too far.

* * *

" **So he lost his suit?? And that's why he can't come??** "

"Yeah, basically." Xisuma tugged off his helmet just to pinch his nose in exasperation as he was at Evil X's base for the second time that day. What was he, a messenger boy? He was starting to feel like it.

" **Is that all?** "

"What do you mean?", X asked, putting his helmet back on.

" **I mean, if that's all, i can just knit him a new suit, right?! I've done that before, i remember the pattern!** "

 _Ah, there goes my hope to a quiet few days_ , X thought to himself, but he wasn't mad. "You remember it?"

" **Yeah, absolutely! Also, i still have this as a reference!** "

EX was typing on his communicator for a second before he, somehow, equipped the _very same_ bright pink Wormman shirt Xisuma had bought him two years ago. Somehow, he still had it, presumably carrying it in the same space players would have their normal clothes stored. Xisuma had no idea how he managed to get it in there. He knew EX had messed with whatever weird bootleg version he had of X's admin powers, like when he had colored his armor red, but... _Ah, well_.

"...so, uh, you want to make Wormman a new suit? Have i gotten that right?"

" **I mean, I have to! I'm probably the only one who can help him right now!** " EX practically started shoving Xisuma out of his base. 

_And probably the only one who really cares,_ X added in his mind, but nodded at his brother. He couldn't bring it on to him to disappoint Evil X, so he had no choice but to let him do his thing. 

_I mean, what's the worst that can come out of it?_

He would probably soon regret this thought, he realized as EX's door slammed shut behind him.

* * *

Evil Xisuma pretty much disappeared from the face of the overworld for the next 48 hours. Xisuma didn't see a hair of him, and he wondered if he remembered to eat and drink, but he couldn't find him anywhere in his base or his usual spots. He knew how obsessed EX could get with things, so he left it at that. Xisuma also noticed a substantial amount of pink wool missing from his sheep farm, and some yellow bits. He only shook his head at it. He was half glad his brother was busying himself with something, half worried what this would mean for the server.

After over two days, he got some cryptid messages on his communicator. 

TangoTek: Impy can you come over and help me with the redstony bits?

ImpulseSV: sure, where you at?

TangoTek: Boombox

ImpulseSV: ah, of course

ImpulseSV: on my way!

ZombieCleo: try not to blow up the building this time ;)

TangoTek: Will do my best!

Cubfan135: yeah, next time you're getting the ravagers back into ravagers run yourself!

MumboJumbo: Anyone got spare gravel?

MumboJumbo: besides grian

Grian: I can bring some over!

Grian: wait what!

Grian: outrageous

Iskall85: im mining gravel anyways, can pick up some for you

MumboJumbo: cheers! :-D

EvilXisuma: X

EvilXisuma: COME OVR

EvilXisuma: TAKE IT

EvilXisuma: BRING IT TO HIM NOW

FalseSymmetry: you know, EX never fails to make his messages sound incredibly threatening and cryptic.

FalseSymmetry: what is this about?

Xisuma: you will see, i suppose... i'll take care of it :-)

FalseSymmetry: ...

FalseSymmetry: must run in the family :P

GoodTimeWithScar: has anyone seen Jellie?

EvilXisuma: SHE IS WITH ME

GoodTimesWithScar: again?? she's been with you for the past entire day!

GoodTimesWithScar: how will she get her daily head pats!

Keralis1: Evilshwamy, don't steal cats!

EvilXisuma: SHES A FREE INDEPENDENT CAT WHO DONT NEED NO MAN

EvilXisuma: ALSO I ASSURE YOU IKDJFHDKF--;;;

ZombieCleo: do i even want to know?

EvilXisuma: JKKDF;;;DFLKJDF;_AS:D

Cubfan135: Ah, classic Jellie.

"Hello, EX.", Xisuma said as he entered trough his brother's door, preventing him from arguing further with Scar about Jellie. The tabby cat in question was currently evading EX's grasp, his communicator in her mouth. He tried his best to catch her, but he seemed tired. X had a strong suspicion he had stayed awake for the past 48 hours, judging by the magnificent pink knitted body suit occupying his bed. It looked like Jellie had taken his communicator away as a way to get him to rest.

Xisuma sighed. That seemed to be a common occurrence these days. 

EX seemed to have noticed him, as he gave up trying to wrangle Jellie and turned towards him, visibly lighting up despite the helmet blocking his expressions. " **Xisuma! I'm done with the suit!!!** "

"I can... see that." Xisuma eyed the aforementioned pink monstrosity. The suits design was... well, a little questionable, but X had seen his servermates wear worse. Zedaph in particular. However, he couldn't deny that EX's knitting was very good. The suit was masterfully crafted, X couldn't see a single mistake. He didn't dare touch it. EX had even thought of making a new pink eye mask for his idol, being shaped sufficiently worm-y.

" **Now i only need to bring it to Wormman! Did you find him, Xisuma?** "

X tensed at the question. However, he had expected this. 

"You know, Evil X, we actually have a mail box system on this server! You can just put it in Wormmans mail box and he will pick it up!" 

The mailbox in question had just been installed by Xisuma himself, minutes before coming over to EX's base.

" **What! Why can't i give it to him personally!** "

"Well, you don't want to endanger his secret identity, right? He's a superhero, after all."

" **That's-...!** " Evil X considered it for a second, then slumped together. " **That makes sense, actually. I don't want to get him into trouble!** " He perked up again, gently picking up the suit, folding it, and cradling it in his arms as he walked out the door. " **Guess i'll put it in the mailbox then!** "

Xisuma sighed in relief as soon as EX was out the door. _Suppose now i only have to tell Zed that theres something in Wormmans Mailbox. And that he has a mailbox._

Seconds later, EX walked back in. 

" **Where's the mailbox thingie, again?** "

* * *

Just two days later, Xisuma had invited his brother over for lunch. He had been confused, but X managed to get him into his base onto his table without too much fuss. Jellie was with Scar for once, but instead, Tango and Impulse had somehow invited themselves to lunch as soon as they had caught wind of Xisuma talking to Zedaph about this day. They were NOT about to pass on this opportunity of... well, whatever was about to happen. Xisuma had been unable to stop them, and so the two redstoners were now having steak with him and his brother. Evil Xisuma was visibly confused, but welcomed their company. 

Xisuma was, once more, a little exasperated, since Tango and Impulse kept giggling and looking to the door and overall acting mighty suspicious. He feared they might spoil the surprise if they kept going like this. Thank god EX was distracted complaining about his latest trip to the nether. 

" **...and there was this ghast! Right outside of where i came out! I mean, jeez, it's hard enough to get out of your bloody tunnels, but come on! And all those zombie pigmen were staring at me! Like, i know im amazing, but they creep me out. And then...** "

Xisuma secretly took a glance at his communicator. 

Xisuma >>> Zedaph: he's here! ready when you are! :-D

Zedaph >>> Xisuma: Will tell him!

Zedaph >>> Xisuma: this suit is a little harder to get on than i remember

Zedaph >>> Xisuma: omw

The last message was almost ten minutes old now. He knew Zedaph - and Wormman, he supposed - wasn't using the elytra a whole lot, and he actually had barely any idea where his base was currently. But still, the admin feared EX's steak would be empty before Wormman would be able to show up. 

He tried to focus on whatever the topic was again. 

"Yeah but, why did you even go out of the tunnels in the first place?" Tango was currently asking. 

" **Well i needed netherbrick of course!** "

"Well there's a shop in the shopping district you can just schwoop in to pick them up, if i recall right!"

" **Oh for real? Oh why am i even bothering with this!** " EX threw his hands up, exasperated. 

"You gotta pay for it, of course.", Impulse added. Just to make sure. 

" **Ah.** " EX let his hands sink down again. " **Right. That's a thing you do. I knew that.** "

"I should still have a bunch of netherrack left from digging the community hub, i can give you some.", Xisuma threw in. Not that he hadn't given EX most of his Netherrack leftovers already. But on the other hand, it's not like he needed it anyways.

" **Well i don't need YOUR stu-** " Evil X was interrupted mid-sentence.

"I heard you were in need of a true superhero, civilians?" A familiar, overly heroic voice came from the entrance.

The hermits twisted their heads to look over.

The silhouette of a man could be seen in the doorframe, illuminated by bright sunlight of the noon sun from behind. Xisuma wondered if he waited a few more minutes to show up just for that. He stepped out of the shadows. The knitted pink suit fit him perfectly, yellow wormy 'W' on his chest. The eyes behind the pink mask were flitting around the room, sharing a glance with Xisuma, purposefully avoiding Tango and Impulse (who were snickering at the sight and trying to restrain their laughter) before finally landing onto Evil X.

"Hello again, Evil Xisuma!"

" **Wormman! You're really here!** " Evil Xisuma yelled, knocking over his chair as he hastily got up and ran up to Wormman, only to all but fling himself into a hug. Xisuma felt like he was in some sort of cheesy movie.

Tango and Impulse started cheering and whistling at Wormmans appearance. Xisuma felt the need to put his head in his hands, but opted for just covering his visor with both palms for a few seconds. 

" **I can't believe my ninth hug is from Wormman himself!!! This is the best day ever!** "

"Oh my god." Impulse let out softly, holding his sides as they were starting to hurt from trying not to laugh. Tango had both hands clasped around his mouth at the sight of his friend-... err, Wormman clad in a pink knitted suit. 

X agreed, sipping tea as to not grin from ear to ear. He was very torn between greatly enjoying the events unfolding, and being absolutely exasperated by the constant shenanigans. 

"Evil Xisuma! I finally get to see my favorite sidekick again!" Wormman wrapped his arms around EX swiftly and patted him on the back. He let go after a few seconds.

However, Evil X did not.

" **Oh, for realsies? I'm your _favorite_ sidekick?!**" EX beamed up to Wormman, arms still locked around his waist. X could tell Wormman was getting a little awkward. Tango went into a coughing fit and disappeared under the table.

"I mean, yea, one could say you are easily in the Top One of all the sidekicks i've ever had!", Wormman replied, struggling to get one of his arms free from Evil X's embrace. When he finally managed to unwrangle his arm, he didn't know what to do with it, and awkwardly patted EX on the helmet.

Impulse was gripping onto Xisumas shoulder for support, trying not to fall off his chair and join Tango on the floor in laughter. 

EX let out a high pitched squeal, then caught himself and cleared his throat. 

Finally, he let go of Wormman. 

" **That's cool, thats cool. I mean, you're pretty much my Top One Superhero I've ever been a sidekick of, as well!** " EX tried to downplay his excitement, just nodding to himself. From experience, X was certain he went trough about 5 different expressions behind his visor within that second.

Xisuma silently offered Impulse some fries as they watched the events unfold. 

"Oh wow, really?" Wormman had a bright smile spreading across his face, then presumably went trough the same facial journey as EX did just before, only for him it wasn't hidden by a helmet. "What i wanted to say, of _course_ i am! I'm the best superhero of this whole server, if i dare say so myself."

" **You sure are!** "

"How long do you think they're gonna be going at this?" Impulse asked, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye. He was watching the two of them banter back and forth with interest, after he had finally gotten back his composure. 

"Based on past experiences with EX, he won't stop." Xisuma refilled his cup of tea. Now that his own role in this little play was done, he could sit back and enjoy.

Tango heaved himself back onto his chair, clutching his sides from laughing. "Zed can go like this for hours. Wormy as well, i s'pose.", he wheezed. 

"Oh, dear." Xisuma chuckled. "Care for some more tea?"

"Do i ever!" Tango happily held his cup out, and Impulse followed suit. 

* * *

" **Oh and a few weeks ago, there was this whole thing!** "

"Another thing?! On top of all the other things?!"

" **I know, it's been crazy! My brother, you know, he's the admin of this server-"** EX couldn't hide a slight tone of pride in his voice. **"-he managed to erase his memory somehow! And some things got really weird and messed up, i don't really understand what happened, and i got onto the server! But i was in Scars body! And it took me ages to find Xisuma, and False nearly killed me, and when i got there X was all hurt and whiny and was thanking me for saving him!** "

"I remember that differently." Xisuma muttered to himself, Tango and Impulse, idly listening in on Wormmans and EX's conversation. 

Impulse laughed at him. "Im more impressed that he admitted that False beat him."

"Not even _he_ can deny that. She obliterated him, right?" Tango chuckled.

The three of them had finished eating lunch and were currently sitting on the ledge in front of Xisumas shulker storage. Wormman and EX had managed to sit down at the table in the middle of the base area, chatting about the events and adventures they had experienced since they had last seen each other. 

"By the way, I never thought Evil Xisuma would be this chatty.", Tango commented, shuffling the deck of cards he had brought with him. 

"I know, right! He's been getting along with us greatly, but he's never talked that much!" Impulse had taken to one of the baby turtles EX had set loose in Xisumas base earlier this week. He was petting it on his lap, unaware that 6 more had gathered at his feet.

X propped his chin in his hands. "Oh, he's always been like this. He's like a puppy, always in need for attention."

Tango laughed as he started giving out cards. "Well looks like he's getting plenty of attention action going on right now, eh?"

"I just hope it won't get to his head." A smile was on Xisumas face at the thought. "He's been getting spoiled enough lately. Mostly by you guys."

"Hey, i'm not the one getting him to build his own base!" Tango was feigning offense.

Impulse elbowed him in the ribs. "You did supply him with most of the materials tho!"

"Weeeell that's a whole other story."

Xisuma laughed as he picked up his deck of cards.

" **So, Wormman, what have you been up to?** "

"Oh you know, the usual! Superhero-y... stuff. As you do."

EX nodded intently, an urge for Wormman to go on. X could swear Wormman was sweating under his mask. 

"Well i haven't been around for season 6 much, you know, had some important business to take care of!"

* * *

" **After that, i was on my own. All alone. I start-** "

Evil Xisuma was interrupted when something hit his face, splattered over his helmet, and started drooping down his visor. 

An egg, to be precise.

Confused, EX touched his helmet, completely puzzled. Egg yolk stuck to his fingers.

" **What in the-...?** "

"It is I!" A dark voice suddenly sounded trough Xisuma's base, coming from above. All present hermits bent their necks upwards and blinked into the afternoon sun, confused. EX was wiping egg from his visor still. 

"Oh, dear." Xisuma sighed once more as he recognized the voice. He knew what would come next, inevitably.

"Poultryman! I have returned!"

The hermits who knew what was about to go down immediately dove for cover, namely Tango, Impulse and Xisuma. EX and Wormman were still staring upwards, dumbfounded as to what was going on.

"No longer does this server need to be empty and void of eggs!"

Xisuma was sure he would be doing a lot of cleanup after this day, as he dove under his storage system, two turtles in his arms that he was trying to save from the impending doom. However, it was well worth it seeing his brother happy and getting along with the hermits. 

Eggs started raining down, and that's when the day went from good to great.

Or from 'slightly weird' to 'filled with absolute mayhem', if you weren't one of the three self proclaimed heroes currently running loose in Xisumas base (and soon after that, the rest of the server). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! Thanks for making it trough to the end of this!  
> This bonus chapter is a little more on the silly side, but i thought of the title and then just had to do it. I hope it leaves you with a satisfying conclusion of this fic!
> 
> Feel free to skip my tedious Authors Note thats incoming! Just know that i am grateful from the bottom of my heart for you reading my fic, and that i hope you go on and have an amazing day now! :D
> 
> Alright.  
> This fic has truly been a journey and a half for me. When i started it all the way back in december, never did i think it would grow this big, both in sheer word and chapter count, as a project in itself, and in the fact that so many people are enjoying it. Ya'll are truly amazing!  
> I learned a lot for myself along the way. I learned about planning trough a story, working my way trough my notes. I learned more about setting end goals, and working on long-term projects, and how good a schedule is for me when i stick to it. I learned SO MUCH about writing itself; my chapters got longer and longer the further i got trough this and i started enjoying it more and more. I learned a lot about my own preferences, tropes i like to see, things i enjoy. I learned a lot about fandom, in general and hermitcraft in particular. How amazing it is to get support and nice comments from people. I still can't believe it!
> 
> Now, the thanking. I'm not gonna put in names, because that would get way too long and i'm probably bound to forget people,,,  
> But i want to thank all of you. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who did fanart, drew something inspired by this fic, or even composed music! You are all so talented and i hope you are proud of your work.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who approached me and talked to me; to everyone who i exchanged headcanons with, talked about AUs, rambled about each others fics. I made a lot of friends in this fandom in the past six months, and you are all great.
> 
> Thank you to the people who basically adopted me onto their minecraft server. I'm thoroughly enjoying my time there :D
> 
> Thank you to the peeps on discord; for every nice comment, every fun conversation, every bit of constructive feedback and yelling and keysmashing. I truly appreciate all of you!
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has ever left a nice comment on this fic, or sent me an ask on tumblr, or showed me your support otherwise. I couldn't have done this without you. (No - seriously, without the amount of support i propably wouldn't have continued this past january. You guys were a huge inspiration.)
> 
> And finally, my truest thanks to every single person who has read this fic. Everyone who looked at it, everyone who enjoyed it (hopefully) - Thank you. I really mean it. I'm glad you all were on this journey with me!
> 
> <3
> 
> For what's next, i'm not sure yet! I might write more for hermitcraft, i might write more for other fandoms, or i might just focus on my OCs and own stories, who knows! Maybe all.   
> If you want to keep up with said own characters of me, head over to my art blog https://ambereddraws.tumblr.com/ ! I'm drawing a comic. Hopefully i'll start uploading consistently soon,,,
> 
> Anyways, regardless of what's next... LitVE has come to an end, and i'm happy you all are here to read it.  
> Thank you so much, and have a great day! <3
> 
> -amber


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